S.-Korea is talking to exclusive mRNA vaccine makers to make up to 1 billion doses

By the hand of Sangmi Cha

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea is talking to mRNA vaccine producers Pfizer (NYSE 🙂 and Modern (NASDAQ 🙂 COVID-19 plans to provide the country with the capacity to produce and deliver 1 billion doses immediately, a senior government official said.

The plan, if agreed, would help facilitate the global supply of COVID-19 vaccines, especially lagging behind in vaccine expansions in Asia, North America and Europe, and bring South Korea one step closer to becoming a major vaccine manufacturing center.

South Korea already has three coronavirus vaccines developed by AstraZeneca / Oxford University. Novavax (NASDAQ :), and Russia. It also has a vaccination and packaging agreement with Modern.

“We have often spoken to large pharmaceutical companies to produce mRNA vaccines,” Lee Kang-ho, director of the South Korean Ministry of Health’s subordinate vaccination center board, told Reuters in an interview.

“There are a few MRNA vaccine developers – Pfizer, Moderna, CureVac and BioNTech. So there is a limit to how much they can meet global demand … There is a desire to help South Korea by providing its facilities and skilled human resources,” Lee said.

It is not immediately clear how far these talks are progressing and when the agreement will be agreed.

BioNTech does not want to comment, Moderna and CureVac have not responded to Reuters’ requests for comment.

A spokesman for Pfizer said the company is making efforts to improve the supply chain for the COVID-19 vaccine, but added that “for now we have nothing specific to announce.”

Lee declined to name local vaccine manufacturers with the ability to produce mRNA vaccines immediately, but a government source said Hanmi Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. and Quratis Co. Ltd.

Hanmi has confirmed that he has a great capacity for this Sanofi (NASDAQ 🙂 can be used for diabetes medicine and COVID-19 vaccine production as the Sanofi project has been halted.

“We have this facility available right now because our clinical trial (along with Sanofi) was suspended in mid-last year,” Kim Soo-jin Hanmi’s senior vice president told Reuters.

“It is very timely that we have a state-of-the-art GMP facility at our disposal,” he said, citing good manufacturing practices.

Quratis, which makes the vaccine against tuberculosis, said the new factory built last year can now be used to produce the mRNA vaccine.

Shares of Hanmi eliminated its first losses and rose nearly 7% on Monday after a Reuters report, with its major shareholder Hanmi Science jumping 10.3%.

COOPERATION WITH WHOM

South Korea stepped up its efforts to produce more vaccines

Lee said his team frequently makes video conference calls with vaccine officials and the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told Reuters that the organization was “talking to South Korea and other countries,” but did not specify.

The WHO said last month that it would set up a center in South Africa within 9-12 months to manufacture mRNA vaccines, which would provide knowledge and licensing to companies in poor and medium-sized countries to produce COVID-19 vaccines.

Lee said mRNA vaccine manufacturers may be keen to share their technology, but South Korean raw material suppliers can take advantage of it to address a global shortage of components such as lipids, nucleotides and capture reagents.

“They are able to manufacture and develop such raw materials to help vaccine producers … and the South Korean government is committed to providing all necessary support, including financial and administrative assistance.”

Lee said the country has the capacity to have at least another 500 million doses to fill and kill vaccines in addition to the agreement Moderna announced with Samsung (KS 🙂 BioLogics in May.

South Korea has agreements to buy 106 million mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Modern this year to cover a total vaccine of 52 million people. The government said last week that it would buy more mRNA shots to use as a booster shot next year.