Will COVID-19 Vaccine be specially imported?

AstraZeneca-Ministry of Welfare had a meeting once, “Emergency introduction when commercialization succeeds”

The Jenner Institut developed vaccine clinical trials to end in August… Production plan for 2 billion people

The government is reviewing the vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca as a special import for COVID-19.

 

Although it is still in the development stage, it is said that the government and the company had contacted with the plan to urgently introduce it in the form of special import if the clinical trial succeeds.

 

According to the pharmaceutical industry on the 5th, officials from the MOHW and AstraZeneca Korea from South Korea held a meeting once in Seoul.

 

It is confirmed that In-taek Lim, director of the Health Industry Policy Division, participated in this meeting.

 

The two sides discussed the progress of the clinical trial of the DNA vaccine currently being developed by the Jenner Institut in the UK.

 

The government previously decided to make a special import for Gilead Science's “Remdesivir”, which is being developed as a treatment for COVID-19.

 

In addition, the government is also considering ways to specially import the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and developed by the Jenner Institut at Oxford University in the UK.

 

Currently, major companies and organizations that are developing COVID-19 vaccines include CanSino Biologics in China, Moderna Therapeutics, and Inovio Pharmaceuticals in the United States.

 

The Jenner Institut started late, but it was the fastest to develop.

 

It predicts that vaccine production will be possible as early as September this year.

 

The reason that the Jenner Institut was able to speed up this is because safety was confirmed in clinical trials of vaccines developed for the prevention of MERS, the same coronavirus disease last year.

 

It is said to have been successful in animal tests conducted this year in the case of COVID-19 vaccine.

 

The clinical trial scale is also the largest.

 

The clinical trial phase I was launched on April 24, and the number of participants reached 1,100.

 

It overwhelms the clinical trials of other companies and institutions.

 

In the case of Moderna and Inovio, which had entered clinical trials earlier, dozens of participants were conducted in Phase I trial.

 

In May, it was approved by the British government to conduct Phase II/III trials simultaneously.

 

The size of the clinical trials are about 5000.

 

AstraZeneca plans to produce a vaccine that can be dosed by 2 billion people worldwide by as early as September, assuming that the trial will be completed successfully.

 

Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca in an interview with an American press, said, "We plan to introduce vaccines to the United States and the United Kingdom from September or October." AstraZeneca and the government have been in a good relationship since President Moon Jae-in's visit to Sweden last year.

 

In June of last year, President Moon Jae-in visited Sweden and met with Leif Johansson, Chairman of AstraZeneca.

 

Chairman Johansson promised to invest $630 million in Korea over the next five years.

 

In December of last year, Chairman Johansson visited Cheongwadae with an economic mission headed by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven.

 

Through the visit, Chairman Johansson reaffirmed his commitment to invest $630 million, and specified the investment market.

 

If the COVID-19 vaccine is successfully commercialized, it is expected that Korea's special imports will be proceeded well.