Pharmaceutical Company Says "Omicron Vaccine Will Be Developed Within 2-3 Months"... "What About Side Effects?"

Average Development Time for Pfizer, Moderna, and AZ COVID-19 Vaccines: 11.3 Months
"Glad a Vaccine to Stop New Variants Is Coming," "You Can't Just Whip Up a Vaccine and Ignore It"

The photo is unrelated to specific expressions in the article. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim So-young] Amid growing concerns over the spread of the new COVID-19 variant 'Omicron,' vaccine manufacturers are competing to announce that they can develop vaccines to counter it within 2 to 3 months, raising expectations. However, some voices express concerns about side effects from rapid development, citing past vaccine side effects.

On the 26th (local time), German biotech company BioNTech, which co-developed the vaccine with U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer, stated in a press release sent to major foreign media, "If necessary, we can release a new vaccine tailored to the new variant within about 100 days."

BioNTech explained, "We are aware of experts' concerns and have immediately begun investigating the Omicron variant," adding, "We will secure more data through laboratory tests within two weeks at the latest."

Moderna also announced on the same day, "It takes 60 to 90 days to produce a new candidate substance as a clinical trial vaccine," and plans to quickly develop a booster shot specialized for Omicron.

Stefan Bancel, CEO of Moderna, said, "From the beginning, we believed that proactively responding to virus evolution is essential to defeat the pandemic," and added, "We are moving as quickly as possible to implement a response strategy for this variant."

Additionally, AstraZeneca (AZ) stated, "Research is already underway in regions where the variant has been identified, such as Botswana," and Novavax is also developing a new vaccine to respond to Omicron. Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said, "We are monitoring the new variant virus and have already tested the effectiveness of our vaccine against Omicron."

In response, netizens expressed relief and expectations for the pharmaceutical companies' swift response, saying, "I was worried when a new virus appeared, but it's a relief," while also voicing concerns about side effects from rapid vaccine development. One netizen criticized, "Vaccines are not like making snacks. They just whip them up and ignore the side effects."

On the morning of the 15th, a resident who completed the additional COVID-19 vaccination (booster shot) at the COVID-19 vaccination center set up in the multipurpose gymnasium in Nam-gu, Gwangju, is leaving the observation room for adverse reactions.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Generally, it is known that new drug development takes more than 10 years, and vaccine development takes about 10.71 years. Until the first half of last year, the prevailing forecast was that COVID-19 vaccine development would take at least 12 to 18 months, but the average development period for Pfizer, Moderna, and AZ COVID-19 vaccines was 11.3 months.

Moreover, reports of adverse reactions related to vaccination have continued, and the rate of causality recognition is not high, which is interpreted as increasing anxiety.

According to the COVID-19 Vaccination Response Promotion Team (Promotion Team) on the 25th, as of midnight on the 21st, the number of newly reported adverse reactions in the 38th week was 6,515 cases. Among these, the cumulative number of adverse reaction reports was 380,715 cases, accounting for 0.46% of the total 83,041,643 vaccinations.

The Vaccination Damage Investigation Committee has held 39 meetings so far and recognized causality in 509 cases out of a total of 3,658 cases considered (1,003 deaths, 1,240 severe cases, 1,415 anaphylaxis cases). The causality recognition rate is 13.9%.

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