S.Korea's SK Bioscience in deal with AstraZeneca on vaccine (updated)

SK Chemicals

21/07/2020 10:15

(Adds details)
    SEOUL, July 21 (Reuters) - South Korea's SK Bioscience has
agreed to manufacture AstraZeneca's  AZN.L  experimental
COVID-19 vaccine to help the British company build global
supplies of the vaccine that has shown promise against the new
coronavirus, it said on Tuesday. 
    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.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N2ER3V8 
    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  285130.KS , 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.
    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)
 ((Sangmi.Cha@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5646; Reuters
Messaging: sangmi.cha.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))