COVID-19: Ukraine certifies AstraZeneca-SKBio vaccine produced in South Korea

The Ukrainian Health Ministry says the AstraZeneca-SKBio vaccine for COVID-19 produced in South Korea has been registered in Ukraine.

"Yesterday, April 20, the Ministry of Health registered the AstraZeneca-SKBio COVID-19 vaccine for emergency medical use," the ministry's press service wrote on Facebook on April 21, referring to Health Minister Maksym Stepanov.

The vaccine was developed by the University of Oxford in partnership with the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca. It is produced under the trade mark AstraZeneca-SKBio by SK Bioscience Co. Ltd headquartered in South Korea.

Noteworthy, the AstraZeneca emergency vaccine has been approved by the World Health Organization and authorized by the United Kingdom, the European Union, India, and Canada.

A law is in effect in Ukraine that simplifies the certification procedure for COVID-19 vaccines, reducing it to five working days, the press service added.

Vaccination in Ukraine

• On February 24, 2021, a national vaccination campaign was launched in Ukraine.
• The following vaccines are now being used in Ukraine: Covishield (AstraZeneca), a recombinant vector vaccine produced under a license at the Serum Institute of India; CoronaVac, which was developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech; and Comirnaty by Pfizer/BioNTech.
• Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, 477,833 people have been vaccinated.
• On April 20, Ukrainian Deputy Health Minister and Chief Medical Officer Viktor Liashko said his ministry expected a new batch of coronavirus vaccines from AstraZeneca under the COVAX Facility to be delivered on April 22.