▲ A novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) vaccine developed by American bio company Modena. (St. Louis/UPI Yonhap News)
Domestic pharmaceutical bio companies have rapidly emerged as a vaccine production base for the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) of multinational pharmaceutical companies. It is noteworthy whether it will be an opportunity to reaffirm K-Bio’s business capabilities, which has been cultivated over the past several years, in the global market while stably securing vaccine supplies.
According to the industry on the 31st, GC Green Cross emerged as a leading domestic consignment production (CMO) company of the Corona 19 vaccine produced by the American bio company Modena. This vaccine was approved for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the 20th.
On the 29th, Stefan Bancel Modena, CEO of Modena, spoke with President Moon Jae-in to suggest that its vaccine production could be commissioned to a domestic pharmaceutical bio company. In an urgent need for a large-scale supply of the Corona 19 vaccine, it has been noted that domestic companies have large-scale vaccine production facilities.
GC Green Cross expanded its Ochang plant in Chungbuk Province before the Corona 19 incident, and prepared enough facilities for the filling and packaging process (Fill & Finish) after manufacturing raw materials. The production capacity of the process reaches 1 billion doses.
Earlier, GC Green Cross agreed to consignment production of the Corona 19 vaccine by multinational pharmaceutical companies supported by the International Private Organization for Infectious Diseases Innovation (CEPI). It is expected to produce 500 million doses from March 2021 to May of the following year. The value of the contract is estimated to reach 2.86 trillion won.
An official from GC Green Cross explained, “1 billion doses are available for production for 8 hours a day,” and “If you expand to 2 shifts and 3 shifts, your production capacity will increase further.” Therefore, if Modena’s love call is finalized, production capacity seems to be sufficient. However, it is the position that the company cannot confirm the contract status at this time.
Modena’s vaccine is expected to be supplied to Korea in the second quarter of 2021. The government decided to secure an amount (40 million doses) that could inoculate 20 million people. It has not been determined whether the amount of vaccine supplied in Korea will be produced in Korea.
In the context of the Corona 19 pandemic (collective infection), the preemptive expansion of production facilities by Korean companies laid the foundation for Korea to become a global vaccine production base. Due to the global shortage of biopharmaceutical production facilities, the vaccine CMO business is expected to become more important and more prominent.
SK Bioscience, which is rapidly growing as a latecomer to a domestic vaccine company, has also received orders for vaccines from AstraZeneca and NovaVax one after another. In particular, AstraZeneca’s vaccine will be supplied in Korea only in the quantity produced by SK Bioscience. The government has secured 10 million people (20 million doses), and plans to start vaccination as early as February 2021.
The reason why the corona vaccine is produced in Korea is attracting attention because competition for securing vaccines by country is fierce, and the storage and distribution of vaccines is generally difficult. Pfizer’s vaccine, which was first globally approved, has the disadvantage of maintaining a cryogenic cold chain at -70 degrees Celsius.
Like Pfizer’s vaccine, the modena vaccine developed with messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology can be stored for 6 months at -20 degrees Celsius, and its efficacy is maintained for only 30 days at a refrigeration temperature of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius. Under these conditions, if domestically produced vaccines are supplied in Korea, the process of storage and distribution is expected to proceed more smoothly.