South Korea may develop two homegrown vaccines against COVID-19 as early as this year or early next year, the country's health minister said Monday.

Currently, five local pharmaceutical firms are developing the new coronavirus vaccines, with two of them expected to conduct phase two or three clinical trials by the end of the year, Kwon Deok-cheol said during a radio talk show.

"We expect the approval as early as the end of this year or early next year," Kwon said, adding that members of the general population are expected to be inoculated with the homegrown vaccines next year.

The government has been supporting homegrown COVID-19 vaccines from the early stage of the outbreak to accelerate its inoculation campaign against the pandemic.

South Korea has already secured COVID-19 vaccines from multiple global pharmaceutical companies to inoculate 99 million people, more than its 52 million population, to create herd immunity by November.

Over the weekend, South Korea clinched a deal with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to import additional vaccines for 20 million people.

The country's vaccination campaign, which began in late February, has recently picked up steam, with more than 2.26 million people receiving their first jabs as of Sunday.

Still, lingering woes over a timely supply of vaccines, along with security concerns, remain high amid another looming wave of the pandemic. (Yonhap)