Korean govt to spend $1.9 billion to become world’s leading vaccine maker

The South Korean government will invest 2.2 trillion won ($1.9 billion) by 2025 to become a top five vaccine producer in the world.

President Moon Jae-in announced such plans on Aug. 5 during the kick-off meeting of the Global Vaccine Hub Preparatory Committee held at the Blue House. The Prime Minister Kim Boo-Kyum as well as the chief executives of Samsung Biologics Co. and SK Bioscience Co. were present at the meeting.

“The government has selected vaccines, along with semiconductors and batteries, as one of the three national strategic technologies. We will become one of the five leading vaccine makers in the world by 2025,” said Moon.

The president also announced that the government will further support biopharmaceutical firms with tax breaks for their efforts in the areas of R&D and facilities expansion.

“At the same time, we will nurture more than 200 vaccine experts annually to strengthen the vaccine ecosystem for clinical trials and mass-scale manufacturing,” added Moon.

For this year, the government will spend a total of 166.7 billion won ($145.9 million) to support firms to conduct phase III clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines. 72 billion won ($63 million) of the funds will be allotted for the government to pre-purchase the vaccine materials from the companies that have reported phase II results or whose phase III trials are approved.  

Experts said that the government’s investment plan will empower Korea’s COVID-19 vaccine makers to fast forward their vaccine development process in the short run, while it will also set up a vaccine ecosystem in the long run to develop and manufacture vaccines for other global pandemics to come.

At the same time, however, some smaller vaccine developers have made open complaints to the government for only inviting the larger-sized vaccine companies. Some of the leading mid-sized firms such as Genexine Inc. were not invited at the meeting.  

“While the government is calling for a ‘vaccine autonomy’, the level of support they are providing seems insufficient,” said a CEO of a biopharmaceutical company.

The government added that Samsung Biologics will kick off pilot production of Moderna’s mRNA vaccines starting from the end of August.

Write to Woo-sub Kim and Do-won Lim at duter@hankyung.com
Daniel Cho edited this article.