South Korean senior citizens receive their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a vaccination centre in Seoul, South Korea April 1, 2021. REUTERS FILE PHOTO
SEOUL 鈥� 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 1 billion doses immediately, a senior government official said.
The plan, if agreed, would help ease tight global supply of COVID-19 vaccines, particularly in Asia which lags North America and Europe in vaccine rollouts, and put South Korea a step closer to its ambition to become 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.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been holding frequent talks with big pharmaceutical companies to produce mRNA vaccines,鈥� Lee Kang-ho, director general for the global vaccine hub committee under South Korea鈥檚 health ministry, told Reuters in an interview.
鈥淭here are only a few mRNA vaccine developers 鈥� Pfizer, Moderna, CureVac and BioNTech. Thus there鈥檚 a limit to how much they can produce to meet global demand鈥� South Korea is keen to help by offering its facilities and skilled human resources,鈥� Lee said.
It鈥檚 not immediately clear how advanced these talks are and whether and when a deal will be agreed.
BioNTech declined to comment, Moderna and CureVac did not reply to Reuters鈥� requests for comments.
A Pfizer spokesperson said the company is making efforts to enhance its COVID-19 vaccine supply chain but added 鈥渨e do not have anything specific to announce at this time.鈥�
Lee declined to name local vaccine makers which have the capacity to produce mRNA vaccines immediately, but a government source said they include Hanmi Pharmaceuticals Co Ltd and Quratis Co Ltd.
Hanmi confirmed that it has a big capacity reserved for Sanofi鈥檚 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.