The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced on Thursday that it was reviewing a new COVID vaccine developed by German laboratory SK Chemicals, which uses nanotechnology to attack the virus, in anticipation of a possible autumn flare-up of the pandemic.
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If approved, the vaccine, named Skycovion, will be the seventh approved in the European Union, while other new vaccines are also being reviewed for EU approval by the Amsterdam-based European Agency.
SK Chemicals “has presented data on the ability of this new vaccine to trigger the production of antibodies against the parent strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19,” EMA said.
The vaccine is based on nanoparticles containing elements of the spike protein, which is key to allowing SARS-CoV-2 to enter human cells.
The vaccine developed by SK Chemicals also contains an “adjuvant” to boost the body’s immune response to the vaccine, the agency said.
So far, the European Union has approved the use of vaccines developed by AstraZeneca, Janssen, BioNTech-Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax and Valneva, which has stopped producing vaccines against COVID.