[의학신문·일간보사=이승덕 기자]South Korea’s human vaccines have been in deficit every year because imports have exceeded exports for the past five years, and last year they found a trade deficit of $800 million.
On the 16th, the Bioeconomy Research Center of the Korea Bio Association published an issue brief, “Korea’s Human Vaccine Trade Balance in 2022,” which was analyzed through the Korea Customs Service and import and export trade statistics.
Last year, Korea’s human vaccine trade balance recorded a deficit of 800 million dollars, with exports of 941 million dollars and imports of 1.749 billion dollars.
Australia accounted for the largest share of exports, followed by Taiwan, Singapore, Mexico and Peru. Among the importing countries, Belgium was the largest importer of vaccine in Korea, followed by the United States, Germany, Switzerland and France.
After all, Korea has never recorded a trade surplus in human vaccines.
The research center said, “Korea had a trade deficit until 2021 in human vaccines, but from the end of 2021, the production of a shipment of the Corona 19 vaccine was seriously exported, recording a cumulative surplus until the first half of 2022.” “Exports from the second quarter of 2022 “In the end, imports increased and the quarterly trade deficit widened, resulting in a trade deficit of $800 million in 2022 alone.”
“With Corona 19, the importance of vaccines is growing, and we continue to strive to ensure vaccine sovereignty, such as succeeding in developing the first Corona 19 vaccine in Korea last year. “We are losing momentum for vaccine sovereignty because of a lack of licensure and licensure experience.”
Developed countries are developing universal (universal) flu vaccines and combo vaccines for preventing flu and corona at the same time, and various respiratory vaccines such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine are expected to be licensed for the first time this year and innovative vaccines such as cancer During development, Korea has not developed high value-added vaccines such as pneumococcal vaccine and cervical cancer vaccine, which have the largest market, and the gap with developed countries is widening.
Currently, the Korean government is supporting research and development for vaccines through the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine development project and the Vaccine Commercialization Technology Development Project Group, designating the vaccine as a national strategic technology in 2021 to establish a new foundation on for research and development and investment tax credits, and recently He is also pushing to expand the facility investment tax credit for Korea.
However, as a vaccine latecomer, the brief revealed that more active support is needed to ensure vaccine sovereignty.
The Bioeconomy Research Center said, “Vaccine development involves high risks and investments, such as incentives for acquiring foreign companies and introducing foreign technologies, and support measures such as success rebates that allow bolder research and development despite failures , and so forth. In this regard, innovative measures must be devised to prevent Korean companies from losing momentum. “
