Jeon Hye-sook "Domestic excellent therapeutic and vaccine substances delayed in development due to lack of clinical patients"
"Asks media and public to participate"
[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] A total of 144 lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Korea have signed a letter of intent to participate in preclinical trials for the development of treatments and vaccines for the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).
Jeon Hye-sook, a Democratic Party lawmaker and co-chair of the Democratic Party's National Crisis Overcoming-K New Deal Committee, held a press conference at the National Assembly on the 27th and stated, "On the 17th, I first requested party leader Lee Nak-yeon to sign the letter of intent for preclinical trial participation. After that, floor leader Kim Tae-nyeon signed it, followed by policy committee chair Han Jeong-ae, secretary-general Park Kwang-on, and 144 other party-affiliated lawmakers who participated in signing."
Lawmaker Jeon explained the reason for launching the nationwide campaign for clinical trial participation, saying, "There are dozens of excellent COVID-19 treatment and vaccine candidates waiting domestically, but development is delayed due to the inability to recruit clinical trial patients."
He appealed, "Currently, there are 30 COVID-19 related clinical trial plans approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (27 for treatments and 3 for vaccines). The total number of clinical trial participants needed for these 30 trials is about 2,800. However, only 7 trials have completed participant recruitment, indicating a severe shortage of clinical trial subjects."
He also urged the media and the public to participate. Lawmaker Jeon emphasized, "This cannot be done without the help of the media. Please do not only focus on annoying political news but help promote the clinical trial participation campaign and join in reporting to overcome the national crisis."
Furthermore, he urged, "I ask the public to participate in clinical trials immediately if infected with COVID-19. Currently, there is no treatment directly targeting the infection other than symptomatic therapy. Participation in clinical trials is the only way to receive COVID-19 treatments, and healthy individuals may also benefit from priority vaccination."
Preclinical trials for COVID-19 can be applied for online through the National Clinical Trial Support Foundation's COVID-19 Clinical Trial Portal website.
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