[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] Synergy Innovation is showing strong performance. It appears that the news of President Moon Jae-in requesting the German COVID-19 vaccine developer CureVac CEO to establish South Korea as a vaccine production hub in the Asia-Pacific region during their meeting on the 15th has influenced the stock price. CureVac also responded positively, raising the possibility of domestic contract manufacturing of CureVac vaccines following AstraZeneca, Novavax, and Moderna.
As of 9:48 AM on the 16th, Synergy Innovation is trading at 4,325 KRW, up 7.86% from the previous day.
On the 15th, President Moon met virtually with CureVac CEO Franz Werner Haas in Vienna, Austria, stating, “CureVac’s excellent vaccine needs to be supplied quickly not only to Europe but also to the Asia-Pacific region,” and requested, “Please consider South Korea as a priority production hub in the Asia-Pacific region going forward.” President Moon also said, “The Korean government will spare no administrative support, including the expansion of raw and subsidiary materials and production facilities.”
CEO Haas responded, “There are many top-tier pharmaceutical companies in South Korea, so there is great potential for cooperation.”
Industry insiders are increasingly hopeful that following the meeting between President Moon and CEO Haas, Korean bio companies such as Samsung Biologics might undertake contract manufacturing of CureVac vaccines. CureVac is developing mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid)-based COVID-19 vaccines and second-generation vaccines capable of responding to variant viruses.
Gene vaccines based on nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA are known to have production speeds ten times faster and higher efficiency and convenience when using microbial culture methods compared to animal cell cultures. Synergy Innovation is the top domestic supplier of microbial culture media and has a track record of supplying Samsung Biologics, Celltrion, Seoul Asan Medical Center, and Samsung Seoul Hospital.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
