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| A medical worker in a booth takes a nasal sample from a man during coronavirus testing at a makeshift testing site in Seoul, last week. AP-Yonhap |
Korean politicians asking US firm for primary supply in Korea
By Kim Yoo-chul
A schedule delay in the shipment of Moderna's vaccine to Korea has put Samsung Biologics in a tricky situation as the top Korean supplier to the U.S. firm is coming under growing pressure to supply vaccines produced here to the Korean public.
On Monday, politicians from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said "working-level discussions" were currently underway with Moderna representatives to allow its vaccines produced at Samsung Biologics' domestic manufacturing facilities to be used here.
"As far as I know, government officials handling vaccine-related issues contacted Moderna. The core issue is how the country can get more Moderna vaccines right after their production starts at Samsung's manufacturing facilities here," a senior government official told The Korea Times.
Regarding the discussions, the official said chances were "quite high" for the country to have more Moderna doses once Samsung starts output of the vaccines from its contract manufacturing organization (CMD) plants.
"The government is hoping to have a supply of Moderna vaccines as quickly as possible because of the domestic situation. It doesn't want to renew a contract it signed earlier with Moderna," the official said.
The administration is now desperate in addressing vaccine shortages that could hamper its goal of reaching herd immunity by November.
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| A medical worker prepares a shot of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination campaign at Saint Damien Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, last week. AP-Yonhap |
Samsung Biologics representatives declined to comment, saying the company doesn't talk about client-related matters.
The government has a contract for 40 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, of which about 1.1 million have so far arrived, according to the health ministry. "The contract signed between the government and Moderna specified Moderna's responsibility to supply 40 million doses by the end of the year," the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.
Moderna said recently that it had to push back its July shipment of vaccine here to late August due to supply issues that could affect other countries in Asia waiting for Moderna shots.
The government is trying to improve the total vaccination rate ― by last week, 19.2 million people or 36.7 percent of the country's total population had received their first shots and 7.1 million were fully vaccinated.
But given the continued spread of COVID-19 in Seoul and key metropolitan areas, the administration is seeking to prevent a massive "balloon effect" in major regional cities ahead of the upcoming holidays celebrating Liberation Day.
In a recent radio interview, Democratic Party of Korea leader Song Young-gil said he had directly contacted Samsung Biologics, but failed to give specifics about the conversation.
Political sources said Song hoped Samsung Biologics could have asked Moderna for approval to supply the vaccine manufactured at its plants here to the government.
Last week, the European drug regulator approved a ramp-up in production of active substances for use in COVID-19 vaccines at Moderna sites in the United States. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it was estimating the European market could get 40 million doses from Moderna's two approved U.S. facilities in the third quarter.
This approval raised the possibility that bottling of the Moderna vaccine by Switzerland-based contract maker Lonza, which has a central role in the production of vaccines, will soon be on track in terms of addressing bottlenecks, a government official said.
"We are currently not reserving safety stock to allow vaccines to be delivered faster, which means that we do not have stock in storage for these types of shortfalls or delays," a Moderna spokesman said.
