SK Bioscience, the South Korean pharmaceutical company backed by Bill Gates, may be able to produce 200 million kits of the coronavirus vaccine by next June, Microsoft Corp. co-founder said in a letter to South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Gates seeks to cooperate closely with South Korea, the presidential office in Seoul said Sunday, citing the July 20 letter, without elaborating on what he said.
The US billionaire foundation donated $ 3.6 million in May to SK Bioscience to accelerate the development of Covid-19 vaccines. In addition to working on its own vaccine candidates, the company is also one of the manufacturers contracted by AstraZeneca Plc to make its vaccine. The company declined to comment further on Monday.
Developed with the University of Oxford, the Astrazeneca vaccine is in the third and final stage of human testing and is one of the foremost in the global race for immunization.
Shares of SK Chemicals, which owns a 98% stake in SK Bioscience, rose as much as 25% on Monday on news of the company's vaccine manufacturing capacity.
No comments:
Post a Comment