Binex, a contract development and manufacturing organization for biologics drugs, said Tuesday that it has joined a consortium of companies pursuing mucosal vaccine for COVID-19.

A mucosal vaccine is designed to boost the immune response of human mucous, blocking out a respiratory pathogen’s entry to human body.

Binex is participating in the project as the manufacturing powerhouse for preclinical drug samples. It has biologics manufacturing facilities in Songdo and Osong, which are capable of manufacturing 4,500 liters and 7,000 liters of drug, respectively.

The consortium comprises of GenoFocus, Binex, Y-Biologics, International Vaccine Institute, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, GenNBio, Bioinformatics and Molecular Design Research Center, Optipharm and HuVet bio.

Binex’s CDMO capability was recognized in manufacturing Genexine’s deoxyribonucleic COVID-19 vaccine samples which are pending human trials in early June.

Genexine is the first Korean company to conduct human tests of a COVID-19 vaccine. It is also the largest shareholder of GenNBio, which is part of the mucosal vaccine consortium.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)