Korean pharmas form unprecedented alliance to fight pandemic

Governmental organizations and the pharma industry are of the same mind in South Korea when it comes to the urgency of the need to fight COVID-19.

The Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association said Wednesday it will push for members to make joint investments for co-developing vaccines and treatments for the global virus pandemic.

This will involve establishing a joint venture, and a combined fund from both the industry and government bodies, with further details to be aligned as the project rolls, said the KPBMA chairman Won Hee-mok.

Won and the other heads of KPBMA had gathered on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing pharmaceutical researches for COVID-19 treatment, the post-pandemic environmental changes and the role of the pharma association in strengthening Korea’s place in the pharma field.

The participants acknowledged that while the likes of GC Pharma and SK Biosciene were intent on researching for vaccines and treatments, there are bound to be shortfalls. With expert anticipations suggesting there will be recurrences of pandemics of this scale in the future, KPBMA asserted this is an issue not for individual companies to tackle separately.

The association will therefore seek to create a joint venture participated by all members, or establish a joint fund taking after Europe’s Innovative Medicines Initiative.

On the same day, ministries of science, drug, health, trade, agriculture and marine gathered for the seventh special committee on biologics development to increase research and development investments for medicine in face of the pandemic.

The committee discussed assigning 624 billion won ($506 million) budget for vaccine development and 1.5 trillion won to enhance medicinal infrastructure encompassing artificial intelligence.

By Lim jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)