South Korea in talks with mRNA Covid-19 vaccine makers to produce up to 1 billion doses
SEOUL (REUTERS) – South Korea is in talks with mRNA vaccine makers, including Pfizer and Moderna, to produce Covid-19 shots in the country and is ready to offer the capacity to make up to one billion doses immediately, a senior government official said.
The plan, if agreed, will help ease tight global supply of Covid-19 vaccines, particularly in Asia, which lags North America and Europe in vaccine roll-outs, and put South Korea a step closer to its ambition of becoming a major vaccine-manufacturing centre.
South Korea already has deals to locally produce three coronavirus vaccines developed by AstraZeneca-Oxford University, Novavax, and Russia. It also has a vaccine bottling and packaging deal with Moderna.
“We’ve been holding frequent talks with big pharmaceutical companies to produce mRNA vaccines,” Mr Lee Kang-ho, director-general for the global vaccine hub committee under South Korea’s Health Ministry, told Reuters in an interview.
“There are only a few mRNA vaccine developers – Pfizer, Moderna, CureVac and BioNTech. Thus there’s a limit to how much they can produce to meet global demand… South Korea is keen to help by offering its facilities and skilled human resources,” Mr Lee said.
It is not immediately clear how advanced these talks are and whether and when a deal will be confirmed.
BioNTech declined to comment, while Moderna and CureVac did not reply to Reuters’ requests for comment.
A Pfizer spokesman said the company is making efforts to enhance its Covid-19 vaccine supply chain but added “we do not have anything specific to announce at this time”.
Mr Lee declined to name local vaccine makers that have the capacity to produce mRNA vaccines immediately, but a government source said they include Hanmi Pharmaceuticals and Quratis.
Hanmi confirmed that it has a big capacity reserved for Sanofi’s diabetes drug and it can be used for Covid-19 vaccine production as the Sanofi project has stalled.
Quratis, which makes a tuberculosis vaccine, said its new factory built last year can now be used for mRNA vaccine production.
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