SKYCovione, a vaccine for COVID-19 based on technology from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, has been approved by the South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for use in individuals 18 years of age and older.
It becomes the first clinical therapeutic approved for use in people to emerge from computational protein design efforts at UW Medicine.
Unlike vaccines approved earlier for COVID-19 that use mRNA, viral vectors, or an inactivated virus, SKYCovione is made of proteins that form tiny particles studded with fragments of the pandemic coronavirus.
These nanoparticles were designed by scientists at UW Medicine and advanced into clinical trials by SK bioscience and GlaxoSmithKline with financial support from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. SKYCovione contains GlaxoSmithKline’s pandemic adjuvant, AS03.
The researchers wanted to create a second-generation COVID-19 vaccine that is safe, effective at low doses, simple to manufacture, and stable without deep freezing. These attributes could enable vaccination at a global scale by reaching people in areas where medical, transportation, and storage resources are difficult to obtain.