Health authorities will launch an efficacy assessment of the clinical trial for a domestic COVID-19 vaccine.

The National Institute of Health under the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said on Tuesday that an assessment will begin this week for one of eight local vaccines undergoing clinical trials.

Neutralizing antibodies from subject samples will be analyzed for SK bioscience's synthetic antigen vaccine currently under phase three of its clinical trial.

Neutralizing antibodies defend a cell from a pathogen or infectious particle by neutralizing any of its biological effects. The more there are, the higher the vaccine's capacity to fight the pathogen.

Kwon Jun-wook, the head of the institute, said the assessment will be the final and the most important stage before commercialization of the vaccine. SK bioscience plans to receive the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's approval during the first half of next year.