Acting Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki said the government is injecting 68-point-seven billion won into developing a homegrown COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this year or early next year. 

Chairing a COVID-19 response meeting on Wednesday, Hong said one of the fundamental ways to address the vaccine supply problem is to achieve vaccine sovereignty, or develop one’s own vaccine. 

He said five South Korean companies are carrying out clinical trials and two of those firms have launched phase two trials and are likely to begin phase three trials in the second half of the year. 

Hong said the government will keep its promise to inoculate three million people before the end of this month, citing that as of Tuesday, nearly two-point-six million people had received the first of a two-dose regimen.