[메디게이트뉴스 서민지 기자] After domestic pharmaceutical companies have entered the competition for research and development of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, they are working hard to secure domestic vaccine supply chains of global companies that have succeeded in developing them.
According to the pharmaceutical industry, large pharmaceutical companies such as GC Green Cross and Hanmi Pharmaceutical are fighting a war without gunshots to lead the COVID-19 vaccine consignment production (CMO), and mid-sized and small-sized pharmaceutical companies have put their lives on securing a cold chain to preempt the transportation network.
Earlier, at the end of last year, the government secured the supply of 56 million Corona 19 vaccines, including Modena, AstraZeneca, Janssen, and Pfizer, and announced that it will proceed with vaccination starting in February of this year and complete the vaccination by November.
As the government’s supply contract was concluded, attention was focused on which pharmaceutical company is responsible for the domestic consignment production and supply of the quantity.
First of all, at the end of last year, ICure began to secure funds while negotiating to select a domestic supplier of the US pharmaceutical company Moder or Corona 19 vaccine. To this end, a general shareholders’ meeting was held and the issuance limits of convertible bonds (CB) and bonds with underwriting rights (BW) were to be increased to 500 billion won, which is 7 times the previous limit.
Due to the rapid movement of Icure, large pharmaceutical companies that have already had experience in vaccine production and secured sufficient capital also began competition for supply leadership.
Celltrion is one of those that has recently completed the development of an antibody treatment for Corona 19 and is about to undergo a conditional approval process. From the end of last year, former chairman Seo Jeong-jin has mentioned that he will promote the consignment production of the Corona 19 vaccine (CMO) with a global pharmaceutical company in the first half of 2021 to supply the Corona 19 vaccine in Korea. In other words, it plans to secure a vaccine for domestic use in cooperation with global pharmaceutical companies through two-track while focusing on the launch of the antibody treatment Rekkirona (CT-P59).
GC Green Cross also jumped into the war to secure CMO leadership by utilizing its many years of vaccine development and manufacturing experience. Green Cross has a factory that can produce 1 billion doses of vaccine per year, and it is expected that it will be able to sufficiently meet the consignment production of the Corona 19 vaccine even excluding the amount of vaccines it produces (2 to 300 million doses).
Lastly, Hanmi Pharm also began securing leadership in the supply of Corona 19 by advocating a powerful infrastructure called the Pyeongtaek Bio Plant. The plant is known to be capable of producing 100 million doses of DNA vaccine per year and 1 billion doses of RNA vaccine.
Korea and the United States are taking a more aggressive move as they entered the bidding for the second place. In fact, President Se-Chang Kwon presented the’Global Strategy and Roadmap for Corona 19 Response’, which includes the vision that it can contribute to the end of the corona pandemic through the production of DNA and mRNA vaccines, and the development of diagnostic kits and treatments at the JPMorgan conference.
President Kwon said, “We are equipped with a variety of capabilities based on facilities capable of consignment production of mRNA and DNA vaccines (CMO/CDMO). Through the E. coli fermentation and purification drug production facility of Pyeongtaek Bioplant, we have a corona plasmid DNA vaccine, mRNA vaccine, “It is possible to produce enzymes necessary for mRNA synthesis,” he said. “Affiliated company Hanmi Fine Chemicals has the capability to produce various raw materials such as nucleotides, synthetic raw drugs (APIs), intermediates, peptides, and lipids (materials for preparation of mRNA vaccines). “There is.”
Within this week, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will determine the final winner. In fact, it is observed that Korea, the United States, and Green Cross will become the final domestic consignment production, given the infrastructure that has experience in vaccines or consignment production is possible.
Mid-sized and small-medium pharmaceutical companies are paying attention to the distribution of the Corona 19 vaccine. As the importance of’cold chain’ emerged due to the flu vaccine transportation accident last year, the system is already in full swing.
Kyungnam Pharmaceutical signed a business agreement with Hanul TEL at the end of last year for’Vaccine Bio Cold Chain Solution’, and recently completed preparations for vaccine distribution. According to the MOU, Kyungnam Pharm provides HanulTIL with specified temperature, volume, and transportation information of the products developed and handled by its company, and HanulTIL optimizes the storage, packaging, validation, and transport at a constant temperature based on the information provided. I am going to propose a solution that has been used
HanulTIL is a vaccine bio cold chain solution specialist, and possesses the technology to carry out cold chain transportation without power supply for more than 120 hours at a constant temperature of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius and at -70 degrees below -20 degrees Celsius to cryogenic temperatures. It is known that Pfizer’s Corona 19 vaccine must be distributed below -70 degrees Celsius, Modena -20 degrees Celsius, and AstraZeneca and Janssen’s images from 2 degrees to 8 degrees Celsius.
Yongma Logis, an affiliated company specializing in logistics of Dong-A Socio Holdings, also said that on the 11th, it has established a constant temperature delivery system that can distribute the quality of medicines and vaccines in an optimal state in the entire logistics process from storage and sorting, trunk transportation, and delivery. Revealed.
In particular, the constant temperature delivery of Yongma Logis can be maintained at 1 to 30 degrees of video only by a special vehicle equipped with a constant temperature facility. When using a special container, a cold chain that can deliver medicines and vaccines is provided while maintaining the condition at -20 to 70 degrees Celsius. .
Icure, which was in competition for consignment production, also started preparing for a cold chain. If Icure is in charge of logistics, distribution and funding, and provides the consortium with quantitative temperature and transportation information for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, cold chain companies participating in the consortium are the optimal solutions for constant temperature storage, packaging, validation and transportation. It is a method dedicated to
Icure has completed cold chain consortium contracts and discussions with cold chain companies, and one of them is Brings Global, which provides high-quality transportation services for pharmaceuticals, such as vaccines, that maintain temperature, based on a 23-hour validation process. Brinks Global). Brings uses a temperature-maintaining vehicle, a transport container using a refrigerant, and a refrigeration container to keep the protein drug substance such as biosimilars, corona vaccine and diagnostic kits, and plasma frozen (-20°C).