As global competition heats up to secure the Covid-19 vaccines, the Korean government has also decided to push for their imports in earnest.

The nation will join various international projects to distribute vaccines to strengthen cooperation with foreign partners and step up negotiations with global pharmaceutical companies at the forefront of developing vaccines.

Korea decided to go all out to secure Covid-19 vaccines through imports and/or independent development, at an interagency meeting Friday. (MOHW)

Through these efforts, the government plans to secure a sufficient amount of vaccines for inoculating all the people, and vaccinate them gradually starting with medical workers and those vulnerable to infection, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

The government made these and other decisions at the third meeting of its interagency support corps for developing Covid-19 vaccines and treatments, at Westin Chosun Hotel in downtown Seoul Friday.

To secure vaccines that have almost been developed abroad, the government will adopt a two-track policy, in which it enhances international cooperation, and, at the same time, pushes for signing contracts with individual companies.

For starters, it will join the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility to secure sufficient vaccine quantity for the public, and send a letter of intent by the end of this month.

COVAX is the vaccines pillar of the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. It aims to accelerate the development and manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

Separate from this, the government will push ahead with bargaining with corporate frontrunners. Last month, the ministry signed letters of intent to cooperate for vaccine supply with two teams – AstraZeneca-SK Bioscience and Novavax-SK Bioscience. It also plans to give advance payment to companies highly likely to develop vaccines soon by entering into phase 3 clinical trials.

The government wants to secure vaccines enough to inoculate all Koreans, or at least 70 percent of the population, a level that can develop herd immunity.

The participants also checked the progress of developing Covid-19 treatments and vaccine by Korean companies,

Korean firms are carrying out 19 clinical trials for 15 plasma and antibody treatments of Covid-19 through brisk drug repositioning.

For example, the National Institute of Health (NIH) and GC Pharma won approval for phase 2 trials of the jointly developed blood plasma therapy for Covid-19 on Thursday. Besides, NIH and Celltrion are work to develop antibody treatment.

In the case of vaccine, Genexine has obtained approval for its candidate material based on deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and the company is conducting Phase 1/2a trials.

SK Bioscience’s synthetic vaccine and GeneOne Life Science’s DNA vaccine are also undergoing preclinical trials, and are expected to enter phase 3 before the end of 2020.

The government has spent about 83.4 percent of the third extra budget worth 193.6 billion won ($163.2 million) and applied the fast-track to see outcomes quickly.

“Securing treatments and vaccines is a top priority to end Covid-19 and go back to regular lives,” Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo said. “We will do our best to secure vaccines as soon as possible by executing extra budget and funding expenses for clinical trials.”

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