Vaccine Development in 100 Days of Pandemic

2022 World Bio Summit co-hosted by the MOHW and the WHO

The risk of infectious diseases has increased

Emphasizing Korea's Role

Vaccine and bio leaders around the world have set a goal of "100 days of vaccine development" as a countermeasure to the "Next Pandemic." To achieve this, it requested organic cooperation from governments, industries, international organizations, and academia.

 

It also predicted that Korea will play an important role in resolving the deepening inequality in vaccine access between countries during the pandemic.

 

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the World Health Organization (WHO) held the 2022 World Bio Summit at the Grand Walkerhill Hotel in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul for two days from the 25th.

 

The event was co-hosted by the Korean government and the WHO and held for the first time this year.

 

It is a place to invite leaders in the vaccine and biofields of countries, companies, and international organizations around the world to share their experiences in responding to COVID-19 and discuss international cooperation measures to respond to future infectious disease pandemics.

 

Starting with President Yoon Suk Yeol and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Ban Ki-moon, Chairman of the Foundation for Better Future, Richard Hatchett, CEO of the International Vaccine Institute, and others delivered keynote speeches.

 

In the ensuing corporate session, representatives of domestic and foreign vaccine, treatment, and raw material companies such as Pfizer and Moderna, SK Bioscience, MSD, Ildong Pharmaceutical, Shionogi, Merck, and Biovac shared their opinions on the theme of "Future Strategy for Post-Pandemic." They cited speed, cooperation, and equality as the most important points in responding to the pandemic, and emphasized active cooperation to ensure that vaccines developed and developed can be supplied equally to the world.

 

CEPI CEO Richard Hatchett stressed that the vaccine development period should be shortened to 100 days to quickly respond to the next epidemic.

 

He said, "There could be more frequent pandemics on a larger scale in the future.

 

Even now, there are risks such as Ebola and monkeypox, he said.

 

He said, "The development of vaccines is essential to prepare for new infectious diseases.

 

"Our goal is to have the ability to develop a vaccine that can respond to new infectious diseases in 100 days," he said.

 

CEO Iso Teshirogi also said, "Japan has established a new emergency system, established a 100-day mission to develop a new vaccine, and is strategically investing research funds to collect information on the development of a new vaccine." Reducing the vaccine development period, which usually takes 10 years, to 100 days, requires full investment and efforts in R&D, flexible regulatory procedures, and close cooperation with domestic and foreign partners.

 

At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, it took about a year even though Pfizer, Moderna, and Janssen succeeded in developing a vaccine record quickly.

 

Pfizer, Moderna, and SK Bioscience, which developed the COVID-19 vaccine, agreed that the vaccine development period could be shortened due to cooperation with governments, academia, industries, and international organizations.

 

Ahn Jae-yong, CEO of SK Bioscience, said, "SK Bioscience has developed its own vaccine in close cooperation with domestic and foreign partners.

 

Without the partnership, the development would not have been possible, he said.

 

"SK Bioscience recently prepared its own growth strategy 3.0, which is to strengthen global cooperation while preparing for the pandemic." Based on this, we will promise to develop a vaccine within 100 days of the next pandemic, he said.

 

They also stressed Korea's role in achieving the new mission.

 

"Korea is a great example of self-sufficiency in the COVID-19 vaccine," said CEO Hatchett.

 

"We set visible goals and implemented active policies to achieve them," he said.

 

"As we went through this COVID-19, we felt that there was a big gap between inequality in vaccine development and manufacture." "Korea has the ability to share a lot of things with countries around the world," he said.

 

Jan Van Acker, president of MSD Emerging Market, said, "It is important to work with regulatory agencies to find ways to quickly obtain approval for drugs and supply drugs, and I felt that the Korean government could play an important role here.

 

"Korea has also demonstrated flexibility in the regulatory process," he said.

 

He added, "In the future, Korea will play an intermediate role between developed and low-income countries to resolve inequality in infectious diseases."