[단독] Secured additional NovaVax vaccine… End this month as soon as possible

◀ Anchor ▶

Last month, we delivered the news that the government has stepped forward to secure additional Corona 19 vaccines from’NovaVax’ in the United States.

In the negotiations, a private pharmaceutical company came out like a special envoy on behalf of the government, and the negotiations are expected to be completed as early as this month.

Regarding treatments that are accelerating development, measures are also being promoted to provide free vaccines.

Reporter Park Seon-ha covered it alone.

◀ Report ▶

The vaccine of NovaVax in the US, which the government is pushing for further introduction, is made with the traditional vaccine manufacturing method’synthetic antigen method’, unlike the four vaccines that have already been contracted.

NovaVax is already being produced in Korea by signing a contract for consignment production with SK Bioscience in August last year.

For this reason, it was confirmed by MBC’s report that SK Bioscience came to the fore in this additional volume negotiation like a special envoy from the government, and this month also went to the US NovaVax with a government proposal to negotiate.

A government official said that NovaVax vaccines have a longer shelf life than other vaccines, so they plan to secure more supplies until next year.

[정세균/국무총리]

“We’ve been trying to introduce additional vaccines from another platform, and we’ve made significant progress in recent years.”

The volume is expected to be about 10 million to 20 million people, but the timing of introduction has not yet been decided as phase 3 clinical trials are in progress.

The government plans to close the contract with NovaVax as early as this month.

Along with this, the government’s ruling party has decided to promote a plan to provide free treatment for Corona 19 developed in Korea.

Democratic Party representative Lee Nak-yeon said in a phone call with MBC that “President Moon Jae-in said that he would supply the Corona 19 vaccine free of charge, but on the extension of that, he will also supply the cure for free.”

[이낙연/더불어민주당 대표]

“Hopefully, it seems that within a month or two (our country is Corona 19), it will become a country with all three beats of diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

“Corona 19 treatment is still mostly free,” Lee said. “Considering that the treatment period usually takes about two weeks to be reduced due to the treatment, the financial burden will not be large even if it is provided free of charge.”

This is Seonha Park on MBC News

(Video coverage: Kwon Hyuk-yong, Lee Seong-jae / Video editing: Jang Ye-eun)

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