As Korea aims to become a global vaccine manufacturing hub, the government will make a national standard specifically for the vaccine industry.
Minister of Health and Welfare Kwon Deok-chul, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Moon Sung-wook, and other government officials held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the matter.
The main agenda of the meeting was how to establish a vaccine industry support system to systematically nurture vaccine-related companies, including vaccine makers, raw material providers, and equipment manufacturers.
The government decided to make draft Korean Industrial Standards (KS) exclusively for the vaccine industry by referencing the bioindustry classification codes in the first half.
With the plan, the government will define the vaccine industry and make a detailed classification for the industry and technologies to identify the target for policy support. Also, the government plans to establish a “vaccine industry protocol,” as desired by the vaccine industry.
The health and welfare ministry and the trade, industry, and energy ministry will conduct a vaccine industry status study by August, based on the draft KS for vaccine industry classification codes.
The two ministries will also obtain Statistics Korea-certified approval for statistics research to secure credibility and regularly conduct an annual vaccine industry study to provide statistical data for vaccine businesses.
The annual study will include the number of workers in the vaccine industry, the supply and demand of manpower, output, import and export volume, technology transfer status, production facility status, and raw material inventory.
On the same day, the two ministries also met with contract manufacturers of vaccines and treatments who play a crucial role in making Korea a global vaccine production hub.
Officials from Samsung Biologics, SK Bioscience, Celltrion, Hankook Korus Pharm, Enzychem Lifesciences, and Dongbang FTL proposed that the government should cultivate vaccine material parts and equipment businesses, secure control drugs for the development of Covid-19 treatments, support the establishment of a national animal testing institute, and expand support for exports and financing.
The government said it would help secure control drugs through cooperation with the Medicines Patent Pool and multinational drugmakers. The government will also support vaccine material parts and equipment makers, related exports, and financing.
“So far, the government has concentrated efforts on Covid-19 quarantine and control for the public health. From now on, we will pay more attention to the support for the vaccine industry,” Minister Kwon said.
He noted that it was time to utilize the vaccine industry’s achievements in the entire bio-health industry.
“Please join your hands so that the government, related institutes, and business officials can all become one to make the bio-health industry leap forward,” he added.