SK Bioscience announced on July 25 a strategic $2 million investment in the U.S. biotech firm Sunflower Therapeutics through a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE). This move aims to leverage Sunflower’s cutting-edge Yeast Expression System to enhance vaccine production efficiency.
Sunflower Therapeutics, founded in 2018, has developed essential protein manufacturing technology for antigens and antibodies. The partnership between the two companies began last year during collaborative research on the HPV vaccine, setting the stage for this latest investment.
The SAFE investment method, commonly used in Silicon Valley, was introduced in South Korea in 2020. It involves initial investments in startups with equity ratios determined during subsequent funding rounds. SK Bioscience’s adoption of this method underscores its innovative investment approach to support biotech industry growth.
Sunflower’s yeast expression system simplifies and accelerates vaccine production, significantly improving efficiency. The company’s proprietary small-footprint perfusion culture technology maintains higher cell concentrations than traditional methods, attracting funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and collaborations with U.S. government agencies, global pharmaceutical companies, and prestigious research institutions.
SK Bioscience anticipates that integrating Sunflower’s yeast expression system into its Andong L House vaccine processes could improve yields by up to 7.7 times. This advancement is expected to reduce production costs to 88.7% per dose, offering stable and high-yield production of various microorganisms, including antibodies, antigens, enzymes, cytokines, and hormones.
