National supply of Corona 19 vaccine, possible only in the second half of next year … “Time is needed to complement the vaccination strategy”

Joon-Wook Kwon, deputy chief of the Central Defense Countermeasures Headquarters. 2020.9.10 / News1 © News1

Even if a new vaccine against coronavirus infection (Corona 19) is developed during this year and goes into production, it is expected that national vaccination will be possible only in the second half of next year. First of all, there is the problem of securing a vaccine and the side effects that may appear early in the vaccination should also be noted.

Joon-wook Kwon, deputy chief of the Central Defense Countermeasures Headquarters, said in a briefing on the 10th: “Some countries judge that vaccination will not start within this year.” Considering that, we believe that we should prepare for vaccination after the second quarter of next year.

The government is currently trying to secure the Corona 19 vaccine through a “double track.” One is obtaining vaccines through the ‘COVAX Facility’, an international vaccine exchange project. The plan is to secure around 10 million inoculations by 2021 through COVAX, a vaccine supply consultancy led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Infectious Diseases Innovation Association (CEPI). For this, the government paid the advance on the 9th of last month. The other is to secure quantities by directly contacting pharmaceutical companies in countries that have been developing a vaccine for Corona 19. The quarantine authorities said: “According to the agreement with the parties (pharmaceutical companies of the country, etc.), it is not disclosed the progress of the negotiations “.

As of the 10th, there are 11 sites in total, including Pfizer-Bioentech, Modena and Johnson & Johnson (US), AstraZeneca-Oxford University (UK). SK Bioscience, a Korean pharmaceutical company, has signed a contract to carry out consignment production in Korea if AstraZeneca succeeds in developing a Corona 19 vaccine. It has not yet been revealed whether the Korean-produced vaccine will be supplied directly to Korea or re-imported after its packaging abroad. In Korea, two pharmaceutical companies are conducting clinical trials of vaccines with the approval of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, but neither have reached phase 3 yet.
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