S. Korea's COVID-19 vaccine candidates may start clinical tests this year: KCDC

SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's health authorities said Thursday that clinical trials on three locally developed vaccine candidate materials for novel coronavirus treatment are expected to start within this year. One subunit vaccine substance and two DNA-based vaccine materials from local pharmaceutical firms are subject to clinical tests on humans this year, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). SK Bioscience, a pharmaceutical unit under SK Group, is working on developing the subunit vaccine material, while Genexine and GeneOne Life Science are each studying DNA-based vaccines. Among them, Genexine has already received approval for phase 1, 2a clinical trials for its vaccine material. The South Korean government has been supporting their projects, so that they can complete development of COVID-19 vaccines by 2022. kdon@yna.co.kr (END)