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 Data on Monday showed that the vaccine, jointly developed by
AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, produced an immune
response in early-stage clinical trials.
AstraZeneca has signed agreements with governments around the world
to supply the vaccine should it prove effective and gain regulatory
approval. It has already signed deals to produce and supply over 2
billion doses of the shot, with 300 million doses earmarked for the
United States.
SK Bioscience, a unit of SK Chemicals, said it will start producing
undiluted solutions of the vaccine after discussing production plans
with AstraZeneca.
The manufacturing contract, which begins this month, will last until
early next year and could be extended depending on AstraZeneca's
success in development of the vaccine, SK said.
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South Korea's health ministry arranged discussions between the two
companies and will also begin discussions with AstraZeneca to
introduce the vaccine to the country, it said.
The World Health Organization's chief scientist has said the
vaccine, called AZD1222, is the leading candidate in a global race
to halt a pandemic that has killed more than 600,000.
AZD1222 was developed by Oxford University and licensed to
AstraZeneca, which has put it into large-scale, late-stage trials to
test its efficacy.
(Reporting by Sangmi Cha; Editing by Jason Neely and Tom Hogue)
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