"Specimens Also Public Assets" Discussions Accelerate for Joint Bank Establishment

Yang Jin-young, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Source=Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] As domestic novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) diagnostic kits are gaining attention worldwide, health authorities have internally begun reviewing the establishment of a specimen joint bank. This is because a large number of specimens are needed to improve the accuracy of diagnostic kits, and a joint bank is expected to address this issue.

Yang Jin-young, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, stated on the 4th, "The industry has proposed the establishment of a joint bank to overcome difficulties in securing specimens," adding, "We have agreed to find solutions together regarding this matter."

Securing specimens is essential to conduct clinical trials of diagnostic kits. This is because it must be possible to determine COVID-19 infection by collecting specimens such as nasal mucus and amplifying the specimen's genes. Deputy Director Yang said, "The starting point of clinical data is specimens, but it is difficult to secure specimens."

The Ministry of Health and Welfare has been operating a matching service connecting companies and medical institutions since March 26. However, the field is expressing difficulties in securing specimens. The issue is that even after developing diagnostic kits, companies face challenges in validating effectiveness because they cannot recruit medical institutions that possess specimens. An industry official explained, "Specimens are secured only from specific hospitals, and to conduct clinical trials, various specimens are needed not only from non-confirmed patients but also according to the treatment status of confirmed patients."

The fundamental reason is the insufficient number of specimens. Kwon Jun-wook, Deputy Head of the Central Disease Control Headquarters, explained, "Specimens themselves are lacking as the number of confirmed COVID-19 patients and suspected patients is decreasing." Son Mi-jin, CEO of SuzenTech, said, "Since diagnostic kit development proceeded rapidly in Korea, the number of collected specimens is not large."

Although still at the idea stage, the 'specimen joint bank' draws attention because it can increase supply efficiency by managing scattered specimens as national resources. Yoo Jae-hyung, CEO of Solgent, evaluated, "Specimens themselves are public assets, and if a joint bank is established, the cost of securing specimens could decrease."

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