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(Photo = AP = Yonhap News)
Already next month, a new vaccine against coronavirus infection (Corona 19) is expected in Korea, and attention is being drawn to what will be Korea’s No. 1 vaccine.
According to the medical community and quarantine authorities on the 22nd, Korea signed a contract to supply Corona 19 vaccine with four foreign pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca, Janssen, Pfizer and Modena.
Among them, the vaccine that the government initially predicted would be the fastest to introduce is AstraZeneca. This is because AstraZeneca is the only vaccine that is being reviewed when applying for an article license from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
The AstraZeneca vaccine will be approved in February. Pfizer’s vaccine is in the “preliminary review” stage prior to full-scale product approval selection.
However, when looking at the status of vaccines abroad alone, Pfizer vaccines are making headway. The Pfizer vaccine is being vaccinated in the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Canada.
The countries that have started vaccination against AstraZeneca are India and the UK, and the number is quite small.
In fact, Pfizer’s products will be reviewed promisingly for vaccines to be delivered to Korea in early February through the international ‘Covax Facility’ project. Pfizer Pharmaceutical Korea also announced that it would apply for an article permit from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety within this month.
However, it is not clear whether the vaccine Pfizer, which has not yet applied for permission, can be vaccinated in early February using the usual procedure.
As a result, there is a possibility that the Pfizer vaccine will be introduced into Korea through the “special import” procedure in addition to product approval.
Special Drug Import is a system that allows the importation of drugs that are not licensed in Korea from abroad to cope with the public health crisis, such as an infectious disease pandemic.
To date, the government has insured a total of 56 million vaccines through the Cobax Facility and individual pharmaceutical companies. In addition, it is negotiating with the American NovaVax to secure 20 million more people.
In addition to Cobax’s 10 million installations, existing reserves are 20 million for Modena, 10 million for AstraZeneca, 10 million for Pfizer and 6 million for Janssen.
Eunji Cha, Reporter Hankyung.com [email protected]
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