# In April 2020, as COVID-19 spread, Jeong Bu-neun (President) convened a joint meeting and decided to support the development of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines at the national level. The plan also included securing domestic treatments within the year and domestic vaccines by the following year, 2021. The government's central message was 'development of domestic vaccines,' with the stance that foreign vaccines would be imported gradually if needed.
However, reality proved different. It was unrealistic to independently develop a vaccine for a newly encountered virus within a short period. As the situation worsened, the government sought to significantly increase imports of foreign vaccines from late 2020 onward. However, the United States, the United Kingdom, the EU (European Union), and others had already pre-ordered large quantities of multiple types simultaneously. At that time, the vaccine market was an extreme seller's market where production slots had to be reserved before clinical success, rather than products ordered after approval like ordinary medicines. As a result, vaccinations were delayed by several months.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency announced in its 2024 business report that it will localize COVID-19 mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) vaccines by 2028 and achieve self-sufficiency in infectious disease vaccines and treatments. With a total budget of 505.2 billion won, the plan is to localize mRNA vaccines, which are currently entirely imported, and secure a rapid development platform. To this end, the agency will provide comprehensive support in a package format covering all development processes from preclinical to Phase 3 clinical trials for institutions possessing core technologies. The government's efforts are yielding results. The GC Pharma and Korea BMI consortium participating in the project has advanced vaccine development to Phase 2 clinical trials and Phase 1 clinical trials, respectively.
The government claims that once a rapid development platform is established, vaccine manufacturing can be completed within a maximum of 200 days even during a pandemic. It states that new vaccines can be developed in just three to six months using only antigen identification through the platform.
At the time of the COVID-19 outbreak, it was difficult to expect vaccines to be available within a few years. This is because it typically takes more than several decades for a new vaccine to reach the market. The polio vaccine, first developed in the mid-1950s, actually underwent over 50 years of trial and error before being put into actual use. The fastest vaccine development occurred for the mumps vaccine, which began development in the 1970s and took a full four years to complete.
However, mRNA vaccines, which utilize human cell functions, have changed the rules of the game. Researchers no longer conduct studies using solutions in laboratories but instead develop vaccines using computers and algorithms. Researchers at the U.S. biotechnology company Moderna obtained computer files containing the genome sequence information of the COVID-19 virus in January 2020 and completed the recipe for the Moderna vaccine within two days. The first human trial was conducted two months later, and emergency use authorization was granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) nine months afterward.
Despite various controversies, including side effects, COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are recognized as having laid the foundation for developing vaccines against a wide range of diseases. Based on this, mRNA platform technology is now becoming a basis for treating not only COVID-19 but also cancer, HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), malaria, tuberculosis, Alzheimer's disease, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
This core technology will serve as a shield that can protect citizens from viruses and international competition (vaccine nationalism). No one knows when or how the next pandemic will arrive. What is certain is that the fate of prepared nations versus unprepared ones could diverge dramatically. Since mRNA vaccine localization is a matter of survival, comprehensive support across all government departments is necessary.
in OPINION
