Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, “Vaccine self-sufficiency in preparation for the pandemic…promoting Phase 2 clinical trials for mRNA vaccine”

“There is a possibility of a flu epidemic until February next year… the scale is similar to last year.”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Seong Seong-ho = Director Lim Seung-gwan of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency announced on the 7th, "We will lay the foundation for vaccine self-sufficiency in preparation for a pandemic (global pandemic of infectious diseases)."

Commissioner Lim reported on the progress of major work, including these details, in his opening remarks to the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee on the National Assembly's audit of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

Commissioner Lim said, “We will pursue phase 2 clinical trials for the development of mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) vaccines and increase the local production rate of essential public vaccines,” and added, “We will also promote the rapid development of next-generation treatments by utilizing new technologies based on AI (artificial intelligence).”

He also emphasized, "We will focus on managing 'infectious diseases targeted for eradication' such as malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis C, and strengthen the management of medical infections such as carbapenem-resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance to create a safe medical environment."

He added, "We have enacted the Vaccination Management Act to ensure that the entire vaccination process can be managed stably and systematically," and added, "We will qualitatively improve the national vaccination project by introducing new highly effective vaccines, such as switching to a national human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, and expanding the scope of vaccination."

In addition, Commissioner Lim said, "We will strengthen the government's responsibility for rare diseases, reorganize the management system for chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes, and lay the foundation for promoting evidence-based aging prevention projects in response to a super-aging society." He added, "We will establish an AI transformation strategy in the disease management field and transform the future disease management system based on data by building highly useful data and bio-resource infrastructure."

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency predicted that the influenza epidemic, which began earlier than usual, is likely to continue until February next year. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's observation is that the scale of the epidemic will be similar to last year.

Commissioner Lim explained, "We are encouraging influenza and COVID-19 vaccinations by adjusting the timing," and added, "In particular, influenza vaccines are being sequentially supplied to vaccination institutions across the country through procurement contracts, and initial doses are also being supplied first to clinic-level pediatric departments that have not secured some supplies."

Regarding compensation for damage caused by COVID-19 vaccination, he said, "A total of 5,054 cases of compensation for damage were received, and the deliberation committee was held 16 times to complete deliberation on a total of 119 cases. Although it takes a considerable amount of time to discuss each item, we will establish reasonable compensation standards and speed up the deliberation."