Bill Gates says South Korean company could manufacture 200 million vaccines by next June

The billionaire's foundation gave $ 3.6 million in May to SK Bioscience to accelerate development of Covid-19 vaccines.

SK Bioscience, the South Korean pharmaceutical company backed by Bill Gates, may be able to produce 200 million coronavirus vaccine kits by next June, the co-founder of Microsoft Corp. said in a letter to the South President, Korean Moon Jae-in.

Gates is seeking to cooperate closely with South Korea, the Seoul presidential office said on Sunday, citing the July 20 letter, without specifying what else he said.

The American billionaire's foundation gave $ 3.6 million in May to SK Bioscience to accelerate the development of Covid-19 vaccines. In addition to working on its own candidate vaccines, the company is also one of the contractors that AstraZeneca Plc hires to manufacture its vaccine. 

The company declined to comment on Monday.
Developed with the University of Oxford, Astrazeneca's vaccine is in the third and final stage of human testing and is one of the pioneers in the global vaccination race.

Shares of SK Chemicals, which owns a 98% stake in SK Bioscience, jumped 25% on Monday on news of the company's vaccine manufacturing capacity.