SK Chemicals announced Monday that it has spun off its vaccine business division into a new unit called SK Bioscience. The spinoff was completed as of Sunday.

SK Bioscience has been established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of SK Chemicals.

With the split, SK Chemicals will focus on the chemical materials and chemical combination drug business, while SK Bioscience will focus on the vaccine business with aims to maximize shareholder value. 

The new subsidiary will be led by Ahn Jae-yong, the general manager of SK Chemical’s vaccine business division, as the new CEO of SK Bioscience.

“SK Bioscience has been achieving success through its innovative research and development expertise and top-notch production capabilities. By leveraging such strengths, I hope to help the company become a globally competitive player in the vaccines business,” Ahn said in a statement.

SK Bioscience plans to continue to expand supplies of its self-developed vaccines as well as vaccines being developed in partnership with global organizations, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to both Korea and overseas markets.

Since its launch three years ago, SK Bioscience’s quadrivalent cell culture influenza vaccine, SKY Cell Flu Quadrivalent, has recorded more than 14 million dosages in sales in Korea. And the firm is now taking steps to export the vaccine through the World Health Organization.

In February, then-SK Chemicals signed an agreement with Sanofi Pasteur to license its cell culture technology to Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine division of French drugmaker Sanofi, in a deal valued at up to $115 million.

Last year, SK also obtained Korea’s regulatory approval for a vaccine targeting a herpes zoster, called Skyzoster, marking the second-ever approval by a country’s regulator of a new vaccine for the viral disease.

The SK-developed shingles vaccine dominate more than 50 percent of the drug’s market, with sales now being extended to developing countries around the world, the company said. 

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)