South Korea has authorized the use of the first locally developed COVID-19 vaccine, made by SK bioscience.

According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Wednesday, its final inspection committee approved the use of SKYCovione, also known as GBP510, after an expert advisory panel recommended its authorization earlier this week.

Jointly developed with the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington in the U.S., SKYCovione is a recombinant-protein vaccine based on novel two-component nanoparticles that can maximize the immune effect.

It is the nation's first COVID-19 vaccine to have passed all three phases of clinical trials. The third-phase trial of around four-thousand adults was conducted in six countries – Thailand, Vietnam, New Zealand, Ukraine, the Philippines and South Korea.

SKYCovione is designed to be administered in two rounds with a four-week interval.

SK Bioscience will seek its addition to the World Health Organization's emergency use listing and distribution through the global COVAX Facility procurement mechanism for COVID-19 vaccines.