ST Pharm Partners with GenVant Sciences to Develop COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine

ST Pharm English CI (Provided by ST Pharm)

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] ST Pharm, an affiliate of Dong-A Socio Holdings Group, has signed a technology licensing agreement for the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

On the 8th, ST Pharm announced that it had signed a non-exclusive license agreement with Genevant Sciences for lipid nanoparticle (LNP) drug delivery technology. The LNP drug delivery technology is considered essential for the development and commercialization of COVID-19 messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines.

Through this agreement, ST Pharm has secured the rights to directly develop and manufacture COVID-19 mRNA vaccines using Genevant's LNP drug delivery technology in 12 Asian countries, including Korea and Japan. Genevant is expected to receive up to $133.75 million (approximately 149.4 billion KRW) from ST Pharm as milestone payments related to the development and commercialization of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, including upfront and technology transfer fees.

Since Genevant's LNP drug delivery technology introduced to ST Pharm has been clinically validated for safety and efficacy, ST Pharm is expected to rapidly advance the development and commercialization of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.

An ST Pharm official explained, "mRNA vaccines are the fastest vaccine platform technology to induce neutralizing antibodies by simply replacing the mutated nucleotide sequences," adding, "By applying LNP drug delivery technology, we are reviewing the in-house development and commercialization of mRNA vaccines optimized not only for existing COVID-19 mRNA vaccines but also for variant viruses from South Africa and Brazil."

Meanwhile, ST Pharm is expanding a dedicated GMP plant for mass production of mRNA vaccines. Once completed in the first half of this year, it will be able to produce raw mRNA materials equivalent to 2.4 million doses annually based on Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine. Additionally, an expansion of facilities to produce up to 120 million doses annually is also under consideration.