[3rd Supplementary Budget] 17.5 Billion Won for COVID-19 Therapeutics and Vaccine Development

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] The government will embark on the development of new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) therapeutics and vaccines through the third supplementary budget. It will also promote projects that integrate the globally proven excellence of the quarantine system with IT technology and projects that digitize and utilize bio research data. The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the utilization plan for the third supplementary budget on the 3rd.

Out of the Ministry of Science and ICT's third supplementary budget of 892.5 billion KRW, a total of 38.7 billion KRW will be invested in K-quarantine. K-quarantine is divided into COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccine development and the establishment of a Korean-style quarantine package, with 17.5 billion KRW allocated for therapeutics and vaccine development. This budget supports the discovery of candidate substances and their progression to clinical trials. It supports efficacy evaluations on model animals and toxicity assessments of candidate substances secured by domestic companies and research institutes.

To maximize the containment of COVID-19 spread and integrate Korea's globally recognized quarantine system with IT technology to form a Korean-style quarantine package, 22.2 billion KRW will be invested. The goal is to develop mobile clinic modules capable of infectious disease diagnosis anytime and anywhere, infection prevention devices such as smart protective suits, infection response robots, and AI-based infection management and spread prevention solutions.

Minister Choi Ki-young of the Ministry of Science and ICT is delivering opening remarks at the "2nd Meeting of the Government-wide Support Group for COVID-19 Vaccine Development" held on the 8th at the Chosun Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

For building bio research data infrastructure, 30 billion KRW will be invested. This project is part of the 'Digital New Deal,' a core initiative of the third supplementary budget aimed at non-face-to-face and digital transformation triggered by COVID-19. The plan is to deploy 2,000 data engineers to each bio research institution to digitize research data and use it as a foundation for innovation in the bio research field.

Additionally, the government will establish a material research data platform for new material development and train 324 specialists. It will secure 660 personnel to conduct a full survey of hazardous agents handled in 79,223 laboratories and build a database to advance the laboratory safety management information system (6.4 billion KRW). To support corporate research institutes struggling due to COVID-19, 20.4 billion KRW will be provided to maintain R&D activities and core research personnel.

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