SK bioscience Co. shares rallied more than 6 percent Monday after it shared promising results of a Phase 3 trial for its Covid-19 vaccine “GBP510”, which would make South Korea’s first experimental Covid-19 vaccine.

SK bioscience announced on Monday that its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, GBP510, developed jointly with the University of Washington, successfully proved its efficacy and immunogenicity in a comparative test with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which acted as a dummy shot during a Phase 3 trial. The levels of neutralizing antibodies against Covid-19, or the positive conversion rate of the neutralizing antibody, surged more than four times after GBP510 inoculation, far greater than that of the control vaccine group, the company announced.

Shares of SK bioscience shot up 6.67 percent to close at 136,000 won on Monday, outperforming the Kospi losing 1.59 percent.

The trial was one of the first international Phase 3 trials comparing two different Covid-19 vaccines, and SK bioscience conducted randomized, active-controlled Phase 3 trials on 4,037 adults 18 or older in five countries with 16 domestic institutions.

GBP510 is a self-assembled nanoparticle vaccine adjuvanted with GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) pandemic adjuvant system “AS03”, and it stimulates immune cells to produce antibodies after inoculation.

SK bioscience received $173.4 million in research funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) for the joint development of GBP510 with the University of Washington.

SK bioscience plans on applying for drug approval with Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety by the end of this month after securing additional safety data.

By Susan Lee

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