SK bioscience Co. said Thursday it has reached a deal with Vaxxas, an Australian biotechnology company, to jointly develop a new patch-type typhoid vaccine.

The global charitable foundation Wellcome will fund the collaboration for the first two years, awarding US$3.67 million to conduct the first-phase clinical trial, according to SK bioscience.

Under the agreement, SK bioscience will supply the antigen utilized by its typhoid conjugate vaccine SKYTyphoid to Vaxxas, which will develop a new type of vaccine-delivery device using its high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP) platform technology based on the SKYTyphoid antigen.

Vaxxas' HD-MAP delivers the vaccine directly to abundant immune cells in the skin and has the potential to be more immunogenic than traditional needle and syringe administration.

This patch-type vaccine also reduces the cost and complexity of cold-chain distribution and storage, removing barriers to vaccine accessibility in lower- and middle-income countries, SK bioscience said.

Source: Yonhap News Agency