Moon Jae-in, president of South Korea

The South Korean government officially approved the use of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the American pharmaceutical company Moderna Inc. (MRNA: NASDAQ) on Friday, according to Yonhap News Agency.

South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) held a meeting to decide on the approval of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on 21 May, and announced that the vaccine showed enough efficacy and safety, and recommended the use of the product.

Thus, the Moderna vaccine becomes the fourth COVID-19 vaccine approved in Korea following the ones by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University, Pfizer Inc., and Johnson & Johnson.

Moderna's vaccine has received conditional licenses or emergency use authorizations from 39 countries, including Europe and the United States, and the WHO.

On Friday, three external experts and five insiders, including Minister KIM Gang-lip, attended the meeting. After analyzing the results of phase III clinical trials of the vaccine, the experts concluded that the vaccine had a 94.1% efficacy in preventing COVID-19 and met the conditions for marketing approval. The risk of abnormal reactions in clinical trials was within a tolerable range, so the vaccine was found to be safe.

The Japanese government approved the use of Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine earlier on Friday.