Posted on 04/12/2021 9:19:06 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Monday it plans to begin local production of Novavax Inc's COVID-19 vaccine as early as June, while five domestic companies aim to start late stage clinical trials of their own shots in the second half of this year.
The announcements came after President Moon Jae-in hosted a special meeting on anti-virus efforts and vaccine development as the country fears a possible fourth wave of infections.
Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said that SK Bioscience Co will be able to begin manufacturing Novavax COVID-19 vaccines as early as June and could supply as many as 20 million doses by the end of third quarter.
The U.S. drugmaker signed a licence agreement with SK Bioscience to produce 40 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for South Korea.
"We would be able to secure vaccines in a more stable manner if domestic production begins, given growing supply uncertainty around the world," he told a briefing.
South Korea began its inoculation campaign in late February, aiming to reach herd immunity for its 52 million population by November.
The health ministry also said five local companies were aiming to start Phase III trials of their own vaccines later this year - SK Bioscience, EuBiologics Co, Cellid Co, Genexine Inc and GeneOne Life Science.
The government plans to provide 68.7 billion won ($61.1 million) to support the companies' vaccine development, the ministry said in a statement.
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Ping for your interest.
Taiwan, Korea et al. are managing Covid well itself. I think Taiwan has a dozen people in the hospital? And the mortality rate is super low. I don’t know if it’s smart right get all wrapped up in these global Pharma schemes when they could be expending their resources just doing their own thing. But why make vaccines alone when so therapeutics and cures may be found in something else...
And I would trust a Korean-made drug treatment or therapeutic any day.
One thing that Novavax has in its favor is that it is not derived from fetal stem cells (although FSC’s were used in some of its testing). Like other current COVID vaccines, it has not yet been fully approved by the FDA.
+10!
Absolutely.
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