Minister Choi Ki-young: "Summer Vacation, a Crucial Moment to Overcome COVID-19"

Minister Choi Ki-young of the Ministry of Science and ICT
Development of COVID-19 Therapeutics and Vaccines
The Beginning of the Post-COVID Era
Rapid Execution of COVID-19 Supplementary Budget

Minister of Science and ICT Choi Ki-young is attending the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting for COVID-19 response held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 1st. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Junho] "Considering the significant accumulated public fatigue regarding COVID-19 prevention measures and the upcoming increase in interpersonal contact as the summer vacation begins, I am once again reminded that overcoming COVID-19 is a more difficult task than expected."

Minister Choi Ki-young of the Ministry of Science and ICT stated this during his opening remarks at the 4th meeting of the Pan-Government Support Committee for COVID-19 Therapeutics and Vaccine Development held on the 9th. He said, "The number of new confirmed cases, which had temporarily plateaued, has again exceeded 50 to 60 cases since July, increasing the risk and anxiety related to COVID-19."

Minister Choi emphasized, "Ultimately, the end point of COVID-19 lies in the development and distribution of therapeutics and vaccines," adding, "We must implement more detailed and field-effective support measures."

He also noted, "We are facing a situation where we must continue efforts to end COVID-19 domestically while preparing strategies to respond to the competition in therapeutics and vaccine development," diagnosing, "The development of therapeutics and vaccines marks the conclusion of the COVID-19 crisis and the official beginning of the post-COVID era, which guarantees the public's normal economic activities."

At the meeting, Minister Choi shared the current status of therapeutics and vaccine development. He said, "Last week, COVID-19 molecular diagnostic kits and antibody immune diagnostic kits developed with domestic technology received emergency use authorization and product registration from the U.S. FDA, respectively, enabling sales within the United States," evaluating, "This welcome news shows the hope that K-Bio can compete globally." He continued, "Based on this technological capability, the Ministry of Science and ICT will further strengthen support for bio research and development to respond to future second and third infectious diseases and to lead the global bio market."

The Ministry of Science and ICT secured 39.7 billion KRW through the 3rd supplementary budget to accelerate therapeutics and vaccine development, advance and localize quarantine medical equipment, among other purposes. Last month, it launched a pan-government medical device R&D project worth 1.2 trillion KRW. It also established a strategy for building big data to support life science research and completed preliminary feasibility studies for a large-scale pan-government project investing 2.8 trillion KRW over 10 years in core technology fields such as national new drug development to foster the biohealth industry.

Minister Choi stated, "With the supplementary budget confirmed, we plan to achieve early results through prompt execution," and added, "the government will spare no effort to provide full support to elevate the competitiveness of the biohealth industry to the next level."

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