SK Bioscience suspends production of COVID-19 vaccine 'Sky Covione'

Seoul: SK Bioscience on Wednesday said that it is not producing finished products of Korea's first COVID-19 vaccine "Sky Covione" due to its low vaccination rate.

It previously obtained item approval on June 29 and supplied vaccines in September under a pre-purchase contract with the government, but suspended production due to low market demand.

An official from SK Bioscience said, "Vaccines are produced by dividing into undiluted solutions and finished products, and finished products are supplied according to market demand. Sky Covione is not currently being produced due to the low vaccination rate, and we will resume production when there is a request from the government."

The official added, "We are still waiting for global approvals for overseas sales."

According to data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 493 people got the Sky Covione vaccine from the 1st to the 20th of this month. During the same period, 54,711 people got the Pfizer vaccine. Compared to the Pfizer vaccine, the number of people who got the Sky Covione vaccine is significantly low.

Meanwhile, SK Bioscience applied for conditional marketing authorization (CMA) to the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in July. It also applied for the emergency use authorization (EUA) to the World Health Organization (WHO) in early September to quickly supply vaccines and treatments. However, nothing has been approved yet.