[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] Moderna, the U.S. pharmaceutical company that developed the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine, has begun hiring staff to establish a subsidiary in South Korea.
Recently, Moderna posted a job announcement on its website seeking a 'General Manager' to work in Seoul, South Korea.
Through the announcement, Moderna explained the position as "looking for a GM to establish and lead a new corporation in South Korea," adding that the role involves "building an organization within Korea and being responsible for overall management." One of the key duties for this position is described as "communication with the Korean government regarding the supply of COVID-19 vaccines."
Alongside this, Moderna is also recruiting a head for the pharmacovigilance (PV) field, which monitors adverse drug reactions.
Notably, unlike the GM recruitment announcement which only mentioned the GM position within Korea, the PV head recruitment announcement explicitly refers to 'Moderna South Korea' and states that the hiring is for 'Moderna’s subsidiary in South Korea,' effectively confirming that Moderna is moving forward with establishing a subsidiary in Korea through this announcement.
Moderna's job posting for a PV Director at its subsidiary in Korea, posted on its official website (Image source: Moderna homepage)
The possibility of Moderna establishing a domestic subsidiary has been consistently raised. Earlier, during the second Vaccine Day on the 15th of last month, Moderna continuously mentioned the possibility of establishing a Korean subsidiary and is reportedly planning to strengthen vaccine capabilities by setting up additional subsidiaries this year in three countries: Korea, Japan, and Australia.
Currently, 20 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine are scheduled to be introduced domestically. Although it was initially expected to arrive in the second quarter, the specific schedule has not yet been finalized.
In this regard, the government announced that a domestic pharmaceutical company will begin contract manufacturing of multinational pharmaceutical companies’ COVID-19 vaccines starting in August, leading to speculation that the vaccine in question is Moderna’s. Candidate companies for the CMO contract include GC Green Cross, Hanmi Pharmaceutical, ST Pharm, and Samsung Biologics.
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