Authorities: "Novavax Vaccine, 10 Million Doses to be Supplied in Q3... No Vaccination Before Approval"

The Remaining 10 Million Units Scheduled for Supply in Q4

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] The quarantine authorities announced regarding the introduction timing of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, "We have received a response that about 20 million doses (10 million people) can be produced by the third quarter of this year, and the remaining portion is scheduled to be supplied in the fourth quarter."

Yang Dong-gyo, head of the resource management team at the COVID-19 Vaccination Response Promotion Team, stated at the regular COVID-19 briefing on the 13th, "Recently, issues such as supply shortages of raw materials for the Novavax vaccine have arisen, and efforts have been made at the government-wide level to resolve these problems. As these issues have been somewhat resolved, conditions have been established to produce the Novavax vaccine domestically within the first half of this year."

Regarding reports that vaccinations are being promoted before approval due to the Novavax vaccine's authorization process not being fully completed, he drew a clear line by saying, "The government has no plans to vaccinate with vaccines that have not been approved or authorized." He added, "I understand that the authorization process for Novavax is currently being discussed through the EU and the UK," and emphasized, "The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety is working to secure data related to authorization around the same time as Europe and the UK and is striving to promptly proceed with authorization and national batch release approval."

The target group and timing for Novavax vaccine administration have not yet been finalized. Yang explained, "The vaccination target will be decided according to priority at the time once the introduction timing is confirmed," and added, "When determining the vaccination target, suitability for the Novavax vaccine is also one of the factors considered."

Meanwhile, the authorities plan to complete the vaccination of the elderly aged 75 and over, which is currently underway, by mid-July. The first dose is planned to be completed by the end of June. The goal is to complete the first dose for a total of 12 million people, including the elderly, by the first half of the year.

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