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| In this file photo taken on March 11, a man wearing a facemask and face shield walks past Pfizer headquarters in New York, one year after the pandemic was officially declared. AFP-Yonhap |
By Kim Yoo-chul
A day after U.S. President Joe Biden said his administration plans to send an additional 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines abroad by the end of June, a senior Korean government official said the United States will send a "substantial amount of vaccines" to South Korea.
"South Korea is a preferred negotiator for the United States' vaccine-sharing program, and that means the country will be a top recipient in terms of receiving a substantial amount of COVID vaccines," the official told The Korea Times by telephone, Tuesday.
Regarding the specifics of this "substantial amount of vaccines," the official said details would be announced during a scheduled joint press conference after President Moon Jae-in's bilateral summit with Biden at the White House. Some sources said South Korea was hoping to get at least half of the 20 million doses.
"South Korea remains quite positive concerning the results of the vaccine talks," the official said on condition of anonymity. Biden said the 20 million doses will include shots currently approved for use in the United States. The Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines are approved for use there.
At the same time, Samsung Biologics said it has no official comments regarding the possibility of manufacturing Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines at its local plant. "When it comes to the possible production of Moderna vaccines, however, we will provide updates as soon as we finalize all the details."
As President Moon is aiming to make South Korea into Asia's hub for vaccine manufacturing, given the country's existing strengths in manufacturing, Samsung Biologics has emerged as the country's best shot to handle the massive production of messenger RNA (mRNA) products. Its shares had risen sharply after earlier reports saying that Samsung had reached an agreement with Pfizer on a contract manufacturing deal, but both companies refuted the factuality of these reports later. Samsung Biologics CEO John Rim plans to accompany Moon.
South Korea is facing a vaccine shortage due to a delay in vaccine procurement. While the country is known to have secured vaccines for 99 million people, the actual procurement of secured vaccines is set to begin after the third quarter of this year. Seoul was hoping to achieve herd immunity by the end of November this year.
Of note is the fact that the country is seeking to strike a tech partnership with Moderna in order to move forward with the government's initiative for the development of mRNA vaccines. Ten local biotechnology companies formed a consortium recently in an effort to localize mRNA vaccine technology.
"The establishment of the consortium comes after Samsung Biologics has agreed with Moderna to produce the latter's vaccines on a contractual basis, although some fine-tuning of the process is still needed," said a source directly involved with the issue, adding that the government is set to announce relevant financial backing plans after Moon returns home from Washington, D.C. Moderna is hiring for the position of country manager and South Korea is battling with Australia to win Moderna's first-ever production deal for its COVID-19 vaccines in Asia.
Shares of Samsung Biologics rose 2.29 percent to end at 894,000 won on the KOSPI, Tuesday, according to Korea Exchange data.
