Moderna, Novavax Announce Combination Vaccine Production
SK vasa started phase 3 clinical trial only last month
Clinical delay due to lack of financial, policy and institutional support
[아시아타임즈=이재현 기자] American pharmaceutical companies have begun developing a combined vaccine that can prevent the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and influenza (flu) together. However, the country is still struggling with the development of a COVID-19 vaccine alone.
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According to foreign media such as Reuters on the 9th (local time), Moderna announced on the same day that it would supply a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine that is currently under development with other respiratory disease vaccines and supply them annually.
Moderna is currently conducting clinical trials for an RSV vaccine in the elderly and has also developed a number of flu vaccine candidates. Clinical trials for the vaccine under study are expected to begin within 6 to 12 months.
Moderna chief executive Stefan Bansel said the vaccine would be customized every year.
Glenn Novavax, president of R&D, said in a statement that it is starting clinical trials for a vaccine that combines COVID-19 and influenza.
The clinical trial is planned to be conducted in Australia and will be conducted on 640 healthy adults aged 50 to 70 who have a history of infection with COVID-19 or who received the existing COVID-19 vaccine at least 8 weeks ago. In addition to the combined vaccine, an adjuvant or vaccine booster is also given.
Novavax said that preclinical studies confirmed that the vaccine’s substance elicited a strong response to both COVID-19 and influenza A and B and confirmed the protective effect.
As such, US pharmaceutical companies are eager to develop a combined vaccine, but in Korea, no vaccine has reached phase 3 clinical trials except for SK Bioscience’s GBP510. Some critics say that vaccine development is slow, but some say that the pace is normal in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.
An official from a vaccine company said, “It usually takes at least a year to make a vaccine, due to the selection of candidates and long-term observation after administration.
In addition, only a vaccine against COVID-19 is being developed in Korea, and it is not known how effective it is against the mutation that is prevalent around the world.
Developers are also frustrated by this. In order to quickly make a vaccine, a lot of capital, policies such as simplification of approval, and development support are needed, but it is insufficient compared to overseas.
A COVID-19 vaccine developer said, “Because the development of a new vaccine costs a lot of money, it is essential to secure financial resources through investment.”
Although the government has delivered subsidies to companies that develop COVID-19 vaccines, this is insufficient for clinical costs. The U.S. provided 2 trillion won to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, but Korea is less than 100 billion won. In addition, the government decided to conduct a comparative clinical trial to approve the vaccine, but the clinical trial itself is difficult due to the lack of a control vaccine.
Vaccine development is being delayed due to lack of capital and insufficient government support, but it is said that domestic vaccines are essential. A medical official said, “Corona will continue to spread like the flu, so it’s good to have a vaccine.”
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