The government’s next year’s crown vaccine budget of 170 billion won … Pfizer and Moderna ‘The rice cake in the pictures’

Check-in 2020.11.23 06:00

The government has announced that it will be able to acquire more than 20 million copies of the COVID-19 vaccine through foreign pharmaceutical companies, but with the budget assured for next year, the prices of the vaccines offered by the main foreign pharmaceutical companies as candidates for vaccine development will be combined in one place. It was impossible. Even if you buy AstraZeneca’s Corona 19 vaccine, which is the cheapest at $ 4 per dose (one dose), more than 4 billion won is not enough. It was estimated that it would cost more than 1.6 trillion won to get an American modder or vaccine that showed an effect of more than 90% as a result of the intermediate phase 3 clinical trial. Authorities said they were in talks with the relevant ministries to secure the necessary budget.

According to the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the 22nd, the advance payment budget for next year prepared to promote the purchase of vaccines abroad is 170 billion won, half of which, 85 billion won, were paid to the Kovacs Facility, leaving only 85 billion won.

The government’s plan to secure the corona19 vaccine in Korea is for a total of 30 million people. The plan is to acquire 10 million people through the Cobax Facility and the remaining 20 million through negotiations with global pharmaceutical companies.

COVAX Facility is a vaccine supply organization operated by the World Vaccine Immunity Association (GAVI), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Infectious Diseases Innovation Association (CEPI) to distribute Corona 19 vaccine in a sufficient and fair to all the countries of the world.

It is a kind of global joint purchase of vaccines that guarantees the supply of vaccines after the signing of a vaccine pre-purchase contract with a pharmaceutical company with the money paid by the participating countries.

For fair distribution, KOVAX plans to first distribute the amount needed to inoculate 20% of its population to all participating countries and then supply the excess.
As for the global pharmaceutical companies in negotiation, the government has disclosed only five of the 10 that have entered phase 3 clinical trials, excluding cases of lack of data or information from clinical trials, and has not mentioned specific company names. .

In the pharmaceutical and biological industry, the top five companies are compressed into Pfizer in the United States, Bioentech in Germany, Modena in the United States, Johnson & Johnson, NovaVax and AstraZeneca in the United Kingdom. The industry predicts that vaccines developed by the Russian Corona 19 Sputnik V vaccine and China’s Sinopam, which are in phase 3 clinical trials, will be excluded. Sputnik V was controversial as it was approved for use in the world for the first time in the world, while phase 3 clinical trials. In the case of Chinese vaccines, cultivation itself is difficult and mass production is difficult.

Celltrion President Seo Jeong-jin also said at the ‘Health Innovation Forum 2020’ hosted by Chosun Biz on the 12th, “The best vaccine is a whole virus vaccine that is cultured and sterilized when it reaches a certain amount. This is what China does. He said: “In the vaccine production process, (the operator) is infected and (the production) is not large. But I’m curious how China can do that. “

However, the current budget secured by the Korean government cannot match the price of a vaccine offered by five leading candidates. As for the prices they disclosed, prices ranged from a low of $ 4 to a high of $ 37. The price ranges from about 4,400 won to 41,000 won on our money.

AstraZeneca is a place that has a competitive advantage in pre-purchase prices. Based on $ 4 per dose, it is estimated to cost 89.1 billion won if 20 million people are purchased, but 4 billion won is less than the current budget (85 billion won).

Pfizer and Bioentech, which recently revealed that they showed more than 90% of the prevention effects of COVID-19 in phase 3 clinical trials, and the Modena vaccines are expected to be difficult to obtain realistically because they have high prices. Pfizer and Bioentech set the cost of the Corona 19 vaccine at $ 19.5 and Moderna at $ 32-37.

If you calculate the maximum price of a modder or vaccine, it costs 740 million dollars or 8241 trillion won to buy 20 million people. In the case of this vaccine, it is estimated that more than 1.6 trillion won is required as it requires two vaccines.

In particular, in the case of the Pfizer vaccine, considering the storage environment that must be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius, an additional freezer should be purchased. An official from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said: “To buy Corona 19 vaccine from Pfizer and Bioentech, you must have a freezer that can be stored because it cannot be stored in general hospitals, and it is estimated at millions of won per unit. “.

In fact, the US government signed a $ 2 billion contract with Pfizer in August to purchase 100 million doses of the Corona 19 vaccine. The price per serving is around $ 20.

Johnson & Johnson, which is the second cheapest hub after AstraZeneca, also priced the Corona 19 vaccine at $ 10, so it needs 200 billion won. The NovaVax is worth $ 16, more than 360 billion won.

The observation that the purchase of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and Modena will be really difficult, as the obtaining of a budget of one billion units must be supported. In response, an official from the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said: “I cannot say anything except the reply that we are in talks with the Ministry of Science and Technology to secure the budget.”