The hold­ing com­pa­ny of a South Ko­re­an vac­cine mak­er is in the fi­nal talks to make an in­vest­ment in­to a US gene ther­a­py firm.

SK Bio­sciences is in the process of sign­ing a deal with the Cen­ter for Break­through Med­i­cines (CBM), a Philadel­phia-based CD­MO. If fi­nal­ized, the deal will come eight months af­ter SK’s takeover of the French gene and cell ther­a­py com­pa­ny Yposke­si.

With this move, SK takes it­self a step clos­er to es­tab­lish­ing a val­ue chain of syn­thet­ic and bio phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals in the US, Eu­rope and Asia by 2025, the com­pa­ny’s head of the in­vest­ment cen­ter Lee Dong-hoon said in a pre­sen­ta­tion. The CBM is known for its pro­duc­tion of plas­mid DNA. With SK’s in­vest­ment, it will ex­pand man­u­fac­tur­ing fa­cil­i­ty in the Cel­li­con Val­ley cell and gene ther­a­py clus­ter by 699,654 square feet.

That project will be com­plet­ed by 2025, The Ko­rea Her­ald says.

CBM was es­tab­lished in 2019 and of­fers ful­ly-in­te­grat­ed pre-clin­i­cal through com­mer­cial man­u­fac­tur­ing ca­pa­bil­i­ties that in­clude process de­vel­op­ment, plas­mid DNA, and vi­ral vec­tor man­u­fac­tur­ing, cell bank­ing, cell pro­cess­ing, and a full suite of test­ing and an­a­lyt­ic ca­pa­bil­i­ties. The fi­nanc­ing is set to close in De­cem­ber.

“We are thrilled by the op­por­tu­ni­ty to join forces with SK Inc., the per­fect strate­gic part­ner to en­able CBM’s core mis­sion of ex­pe­dit­ing the path to ap­proval for cell and gene ther­a­pies for pa­tients in need,” said co-founder of CBM Au­drey Green­berg in a press re­lease. “SK’s mis­sion of de­liv­er­ing val­ue and hap­pi­ness for all, cul­ture of safe­ty and qual­i­ty, em­pha­sis on ESG val­ues, and glob­al reach cre­ates an ide­al match for CBM. SK has a strong bio­phar­ma port­fo­lio, in­clud­ing con­sid­er­able in­vest­ments in cell & gene ther­a­py com­pa­nies cre­at­ing enor­mous strate­gic val­ue for CBM.  The SK CBM part­ner­ship will bring ca­pac­i­ty to a starved CGT mar­ket­place and ex­pe­dite the de­liv­ery of new ther­a­pies to pa­tients who need them now.”

SK ex­pand­ed its vac­cine pro­duc­tion in a big way over the sum­mer, af­ter it an­nounced it would in­vest $132 mil­lion in pro­duc­tion ca­pac­i­ty in mR­NA and vi­ral vec­tor op­er­a­tions in a project set to be op­er­a­tional by 2024. That ex­pan­sion will add more than 1 mil­lion square feet of pro­duc­tion space in An­dong, and was the first site in the coun­try to get the OK for Covid-19 vac­cine man­u­fac­tur­ing on the con­ti­nent.

It al­so re­ceived back­ing from CEPI, a coali­tion that backed both Mod­er­na and Ox­ford, and with it, $173.4 mil­lion to fin­ish its clin­i­cal tri­als and scale up man­u­fac­tur­ing to work on a vac­cine that de­liv­ers at low dos­es.

After making it clear that the US’ current monkeypox vaccine supply is insufficient, the FDA on Tuesday authorized a new route of administration that should increase the number of available doses by five-fold.

Regulators cleared Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos vaccine for intradermal injection in adults older than 18. Unlike subcutaneous injection — the current method by which vaccine is delivered under the skin — an intradermal jab goes directly into the skin. It’s believed that this method requires less vaccine, since the dermis is rich in dendritic cells which specialize in taking up foreign antigens and presenting them to the immune system, according to Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Over the past few years, the promise of blocking CD47 — a “don’t eat me” signal co-opted by cancer cells — has sent drugmakers big and small into a frenzy. But one biotech is now bowing out.

Zai Lab is deprioritizing ZL-1201, its CD47 inhibitor, scrapping plans for a Phase II trial. It will now “pursue out-licensing opportunities,” the company said in its Q2 update. The decision was based on a review of the competitive landscape, it added, without going into further details.

Less than a week after HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra declared monkeypox a national health emergency, reports have emerged that the US plans to extend its vaccine supply by opting for a different route of administration.

Officials are expected to call for intradermal injection of Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos vaccine — the only shot approved specifically for monkeypox in the US — as opposed to subcutaneous injection, unnamed sources told both the New York Times and Washington Post on Tuesday.