 |
| Second Vice Minister of Economy and Finance An Il-whan, center, listens to researchers' explanation during his visit to Genexine's lab in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, in this June 10 file photo. Courtesy of Ministry of Economy and Finance |
Gov't urged to enhance support for vaccine firms
By Nam Hyun-woo
Korea is facing a "double whammy" in dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 spike as drug makers here have shown little progress in vaccine development while the government is struggling to secure sufficient vaccines from global drug manufacturers.
Despite Korean firms' efforts to ramp up vaccine development, their candidates remain in the early stages of clinical trials, triggering calls for enhanced support from the government
According to UNICEF's Vaccine Market Dashboard and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Wednesday, Korea has 10 drug developers which have COVID-19 vaccine in their pipelines.
Of them, four firms and one institution have entered the clinical trials stage. They are Genexine, SK Bioscience, Cellid, GeneOne Life Science and the International Vaccine Institute (IVI).
The IVI and Genexine launched their respective clinical trials in June, followed by SK Bioscience in November. GeneOne and Cellid were each granted with ministry approval for their clinical trials in December.
Though they started testing at different times, they are all showing similar progress. SK Bioscience is in a Phase 1 study, while the four others are in Phase 1/2a, meaning they are running Phase 1 and 2a simultaneously.
In the Phase 1 study, drug developers test the safety of a new candidate drugs and how they workom human body. Phase 2 studies usually consist of 2a and 2b. Developers mostly assess the dosing requirements in 2a and focus on efficacy of the drug on a larger patient group in 2b.
The IVI is testing a candidate developed by U.S. pharmaceutical firm Inovio in Korea, while the four companies are developing their own COVID-19 vaccines here, and remain in the early stages of clinical trials.
 |
| Genexine's COVID-19 vaccine candidate GX-19 |
Of the firms, Genexine appears to be leading the pack. The company announced Dec. 17 that its candidate, GX-19, showed noteworthy results in the Phase 1 study, but had no advantages over other COVID-19 vaccines which are already being administered in some countries.
Due to this, the company said it changed the candidate to GX-19N, which is anticipated to have efficacy against recently observed new COVID-19 strains. This means the company has to roll back its tests so far and the development will take two to three months longer.
"As a latecomer, Genexine will come up with the most safe and versatile vaccine which can cover new strains," the company said in a statement.
As domestic are progressing slowly, the Ministry of Health and Welfare admitted Dec. 18 that domestic vaccine development is "lagging behind overseas developers" and their launches are expected to be late next year.
"It appears to be the government was too optimistic about the domestic COVID-19 treatment and vaccines," a domestic biotech official said. "Though Celltrion, GC Pharm and other big name domestic drug makers are relatively fast in developing treatments, the public sentiment is leaning toward vaccine, because everyone wants to prevent COVID-19, not getting treated after being infected."
Against this backdrop, calls are growing for the government to extend more support to domestic vaccine developers.
According to Korea Health Industry Development Institute data submitted to Rep. Lee Jong-seong of People Power Party, only two out of the aforementioned firms have received government subsidies for their vaccine development. The government set aside 49 billion won for subsidies, but has paid out only 10.9 billion won ― 9.3 billion won to Genexine and 1.6 billion won to SK Bioscience.
![[INTERVIEW] Preserving Tanzania's wonders through sustainable tourism](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/9606b2df96df45e0b85a8f8df5a15235.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
