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 center.
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.