Lee Hyo-jin covers the Bank of Korea, the banking industry and broader financial news. Her previous beats include foreign affairs, North Korea and general reporting on Korean society.
Gov't to incentivize vaccine trial volunteers
A researcher at SK Bioscience works on a potential coronavirus vaccine at the company's manufacturing plant in this undated photo. Courtesy of SK Bioscience
By Lee Hyo-jin
By Lee Hyo-jin
The Korean government will offer incentives to participants in clinical trials of domestic COVID-19 vaccines, as a part of its efforts to expedite vaccine development here amid the ongoing global competition in vaccine procurement.
“We will put our full efforts into the safe development of domestic vaccines, while doing our best to provide incentives for those who are participating in clinical trials,” Sohn Young-rae, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said during a briefing, Sunday.
While detailed incentive measures are yet to be disclosed, the government is considering offering opportunities for early vaccination ahead of the inoculation schedule, or various discounts to volunteers for participating in clinical trials.
“Amid the ongoing global competition in securing COVID-19 vaccines, achieving vaccine sovereignty through producing locally developed products will be a first step to returning to pre-COVID-19 normalcy,” Sohn said.
Seven domestic pharmaceutical firms are conducting clinical trials on their COVID-19 vaccine candidates, and SK Bioscience is the only company so far to have won approval to enter phase 3 trials.
On Aug. 10, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety gave SK Bioscience the green light to proceed with phase 3 clinical trials of its vaccine candidate, GBP510.
According to the health ministry, SK Bioscience will begin final-stage clinical trials next year, with the aim of making an interim determination based on the results during the first quarter of 2022. Commercial use of the GBP510 vaccine is expected to be available in the first half of that year.
In the comparative clinical trials involving 3,990 participants from various countries, 93 of whom will be Korean nationals, one group will be inoculated with the new GBP510 vaccine under development, while the other group will be administered with the AstraZeneca vaccine, in order to assess the efficacy of the former.