Government Pursues 'Two-Track Securing' of Vaccines and Treatments with Both In-House Development and Overseas Products

COVID-19 Vaccines and Treatments: Domestic Development and Overseas Product Acquisition
Blood Plasma Treatment Development Allows Blood Collection Outside Medical Institutions

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] The government has decided to pursue a two-track strategy to swiftly secure COVID-19 treatments and vaccines by focusing on domestic development capabilities and ensuring stable procurement of overseas products.

The Pan-Government Support Group for COVID-19 Treatment and Vaccine Development held its second meeting on the 8th at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, to discuss this plan.

The meeting was attended by co-chairs of the support group, Minister Park Neung-hoo of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Minister Choi Ki-young of the Ministry of Science and ICT, along with Lee Ui-kyung, Commissioner of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Jung Eun-kyung, Director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, vice ministers from related ministries, and domestic experts in the treatment and vaccine fields.

Minister Park Neung-hoo stated, "The basic approach is a two-track strategy that consolidates the capabilities of industry, academia, research institutes, and hospitals to rapidly develop safe and effective treatments and vaccines domestically, while also ensuring stable procurement of overseas-developed products, raw materials, and essential quarantine supplies."

At the meeting, the Pan-Government Support Group decided to push forward two urgent institutional improvements to accelerate treatment and vaccine development, including establishing institutional support measures for plasma treatment development.

Rapid development of plasma treatments requires a large amount of plasma from COVID-19 recovered patients. Blood collection can only be performed by medical institutions, but the Korean Red Cross is not a medical institution, which poses difficulties in collecting plasma for research purposes. The Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to actively interpret relevant laws to allow the Korean Red Cross to collect plasma for research and support medical institutions lacking plasma collection equipment by leasing apheresis machines to enable plasma collection.

They will also prepare the "Guidelines for Plasma Collection from COVID-19 Recovered Patients for Plasma Treatment Development," which details the procedures for plasma collection for treatment development, to present safe and rapid plasma collection standards.

The government will also establish support measures for private sector biosafety facilities to promote private development of treatments and vaccines. Evaluation of the efficacy of COVID-19 treatment and vaccine candidates requires Biosafety Level 3 (BL3) facilities. However, private entities find it difficult to build their own facilities, leading to high demand for access to public BL3 facilities.

Accordingly, while institutions like the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology have supported facility use through self-assessment, this will be expanded going forward. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency will support connections between private research facilities and BL3 operating institutions. The agency will form a "Biosafety Research Facility Private Support Team," composed of biosafety managers and research experts, to handle demand reception, priority review, and safety management.

Minister Park Neung-hoo said, "Since each company faces different circumstances, we will provide customized support ranging from regulatory improvements to R&D funding to develop COVID-19 treatments and vaccines."

Minister Choi Ki-young stated, "Considering COVID-19's high transmissibility, the possibility of a second wave, and potential future outbreaks of second and third new coronaviruses, we will strengthen support to enhance infrastructure and R&D capabilities related to treatments and vaccines across industry, academia, and research."

Meanwhile, according to the Pan-Government Support Group, COVID-19 treatments could be released as early as the end of this year, and vaccine production is expected to be possible in the second half of next year. In the treatment field, clinical trials are underway for seven drug repurposing studies expanding indications of already approved drugs. In the vaccine field, three candidate substances are expected to begin clinical trials within this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.