[Special Stock] Microdigital Rises on Spotlight as Supplier of Vaccine Culture Medium to SK Bioscience

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] Microdigital's stock price is on the rise. This appears to be due to the spotlight on the company's history of supplying single-use cell culture systems amid the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's approval of SK Bioscience's phase 3 clinical trial for its COVID-19 vaccine.

As of 10:33 AM on the 10th, Microdigital's stock price recorded 22,950 KRW, up 12.22% compared to the previous day. The news that the company succeeded in domestic production of both single-use cell culture equipment and culture media, which are dominated by foreign companies, and supplied samples to SK Bioscience and Celltrion, among others, seems to have acted as a positive factor.

On the same day, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced that after thoroughly verifying the safety and scientific validity of SK Bioscience's recombinant vaccine 'GBP510' phase 3 clinical trial plan, it approved the phase 3 clinical trial plan for the first domestically produced COVID-19 vaccine. The clinical trial will be conducted using the AstraZeneca vaccine as a comparator vaccine to confirm the vaccine's efficacy through a 'comparative clinical trial method.' Among the total 3,990 trial subjects, 3,000 will receive the test vaccine, and 990 will receive the comparator vaccine to evaluate the vaccine's safety and immunogenicity.

Accordingly, Microdigital, which developed the single-use cell culture system, is interpreted to have attracted attention. Culture bags are consumables essential not only for vaccine production but also for manufacturing and experimenting with biopharmaceuticals. In the past, stainless steel reusable bioreactors were widely used, but they had the disadvantage of requiring sterilization after cell culture. Using single-use culture bags allows only the culture bag to be replaced, significantly saving time and initial facility costs.

Choi Seonghwan, senior researcher at Research Alme, explained, "Microdigital's single-use cell culture system is understood to have completed sample deliveries to Samsung Biologics, SK Bioscience, and Celltrion," adding, "Full-scale supply is expected to begin after testing."