President Moon: "Do not hesitate to support and fund vaccine development until the end"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] It is known that President Moon Jae-in emphasized the importance of vaccine development two years ago, saying, "Do not spare administrative support or money, and see it through to the end."

Park Soo-hyun, Senior Secretary for Public Communication at the Blue House, posted an article titled "The President's Story Not in the Briefing - The Journey for Developing a Domestic COVID-19 Vaccine" on Facebook on the 1st, conveying the government's efforts for vaccine development.

Park said that at a joint meeting of industry, academia, research institutes, and hospitals for the development of treatments and vaccines in April 2020, President Moon emphasized the importance of vaccine development by saying, "Do not spare administrative support or money, and if the Ministry of Science and ICT or the Ministry of Health and Welfare alone are insufficient, bring in the Ministry of Economy and Finance to see it through to the end."

Park emphasized, "The President's instructions covered all areas including expanding R&D (research and development) investment, securing comparator vaccines, recruiting clinical trial participants, and regulatory improvements," adding, "This shows that the President himself had a deep understanding of the essential elements of vaccine development."

SK Bioscience recently achieved success in Phase 3 clinical trials with a candidate substance developed as a COVID-19 vaccine, and the Blue House explained that behind this was President Moon's will to secure vaccine sovereignty from the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak. Park said, "While 99% of the effort belongs to the company and they will be evaluated, I also feel great pride from witnessing the government's remaining 1% support."