COVID-19 'Oral Antiviral and Vaccine Development Status' Discussed in Pan-Government Meeting

On the 14th, the oral COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid was delivered to a pharmacy in Guro-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Pan-Governmental Task Force for COVID-19 Therapeutics and Vaccine Development held specialized committee meetings by sector on the 22nd to review the progress of therapeutics and vaccine development.

The Therapeutics Committee reviewed the research progress and discussed support measures for Ildong Pharmaceutical and Celltrion, which are developing oral therapeutics and antibody therapeutics respectively that can be used against variants including Omicron.

The Therapeutics Committee also exchanged opinions on clinical research plans and utilization strategies, including medical field efficacy investigations of Pfizer's oral therapeutic 'Paxlovid.'

The Vaccine Committee confirmed the development status of COVID-19 vaccines by SK Bioscience and YuBioLogics and discussed support and cooperation measures.

They also listened to the development trends of Omicron-targeted vaccines by global pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Moderna, as well as research results on cell-mediated immunogenicity analysis of domestic Omicron variant strains, and exchanged opinions on response measures against the Omicron variant.

The Messenger RNA (mRNA) Vaccine Committee discussed the domestic and international mRNA vaccine development status and the future plans of the 'mRNA Vaccine Project Group' jointly organized this year by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

The KDCA decided to undertake the project 'Development and Evaluation of Lipid Nanoparticle (LNP) Candidate Materials for mRNA Vaccine Development,' and the Ministry of Science and ICT agreed to establish 'mRNA Vaccine Platform and Efficacy Evaluation Technology,' with the current status shared on the day.

Chairman Kwon Jun-wook of the Task Force stated, "To ensure rapid progress in domestic therapeutics and vaccine development, experts from related fields and government members will continue to cooperate and promote cross-ministerial collaboration."

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