After the government released the detailed timeline for the domestic Covid-19 vaccine supply plan, industry watchers are paying attention to AstraZeneca’s vaccines manufactured by SK Bioscience.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Monday that the nation would start receiving AZ’s vaccines for the inoculation of 750,000 people (1.5 million doses) from Feb. 24. The KDCA said it planned to receive AZ vaccines for a total of 10 million people by the third quarter.
Observers eye the vaccine maker SK Bioscience, which won a contract manufacturing organization (CMO) deal with AZ.
SK Bioscience said it could produce up to 500 million doses of vaccines annually. When it established the “L House” vaccine plant in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, in 2012, the plant had an annual capacity of 150 million doses. The manufacturing capacity has more than tripled in the past nine years by boosting the production line efficiency.
SK Bioscience’s large manufacturing capacity has raised hope that the local firm’s vaccine production might lead to an early supply of vaccines or vaccinations for a larger-than-expected number of people.
Industry watchers speculated that SK Bioscience might have stocked Covid-19 vaccines because they could be stored in normal refrigerator temperatures, not in the extremely cold environment.
SK Bioscience admitted that it had Covid-19 vaccines stored in its warehouse.
The company agreed with AZ in July to manufacture AZ’s Covid-19 vaccines.
However, the company said it would be difficult to predict that Korea would get the first supply because a local firm manufactured the vaccines.
SK Bioscience’s manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines is a part of its CMO agreement with AZ, and SK Bioscience does not have any authority to set quotas for each country, it said.
It also cautioned against putting too much meaning in the KDCA’s naming SK Bioscience agency to conduct the national project to build a Covid-19 vaccine distribution and management system.
“It is true that many different stocked vaccines include AZ vaccines. But those are limited to the quantity consigned by the KDCA,” an official at SK Bioscience said.
Although SK Bioscience manufactures AZ vaccines, the health authorities and the AZ’s headquarters hold the key to adjusting the vaccines' domestic supply, he said.
A KDCA official said the AZ’s headquarters decides when and how many vaccines it can supply for Korea.
“As AZ vaccines will be produced in a CMO deal, matters regarding supply and distribution are to be decided by the AZ headquarters,” the KDCA official said. “We are continuously discussing to provide all Covid-19 vaccines as early as possible.”
However, AZ vaccines produced by SK Bioscience will go through a simple distribution channel, compared to other imported vaccines, he added.