Accelerating the Development of COVID-19 Treatments and Vaccines

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] On the 25th, the government held a meeting of the Pan-Governmental Support Committee for the Development of COVID-19 Therapeutics to review the 'status of therapeutics and vaccine development' and listen to difficulties.

At the meeting, Celltrion and SK Bioscience reported on the progress and plans of clinical trials for the development of COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines. Celltrion announced that it had completed Phase 1 clinical trials on 32 healthy adults and confirmed safety with no significant adverse events.

Accordingly, it is accelerating the development of therapeutics, having received approval for Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on the 17th.

SK Bioscience is conducting non-clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccine development with support from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Science and ICT, and other government bodies. It plans to apply for Phase 1 clinical trials in early October this year.

Meanwhile, the government announced that it will support clinical trial costs to reduce the burden on companies (KRW 45 billion for therapeutics, KRW 49 billion for vaccines, totaling KRW 94 billion).

At the end of August, considering the likelihood of success, the government selected eight projects (including five pre-selected companies) as the first round of support targets. Among them, for one project (Celltrion), the scale and conditions of support were prioritized and finalized, and an agreement was signed (Pan-Governmental New Drug Development Project Group ↔ company).

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