S. Korean firms to invest 6.3 trillion won to build COVID vaccine hub by 2024

The South Korean government is committed to nurturing and assisting the vaccine business in order to make the country a K-global COVID vaccine hub. The government intends to establish South Korea as a global vaccine production and distribution centre. Moreover, Private sectors have decided to invest a whopping 6.3 trillion won by 2024, according to ANI.

South Korean companies to invest 6.3 trillion for vaccine production

The government determined at the conference to encourage private enterprises to invest in facilities to grow the vaccine and vaccine raw material industries as a core industry. By 2024, private enterprises will have invested or planned to invest a total of 6.29 trillion won. Samsung Biologics plans to invest a total of 4.24 trillion won by 2022, including 1.74 trillion won in Songdo's fourth factory, which has been under construction since February, and 2.5 trillion won in subsequent plants from 2022 to 2024.
Whereas, Celltrion plans to spend 1.5 trillion won on factories and a research and development centre, while SK Bioscience will spend 270 billion won on a vaccination facility.

Government to develop a vaccination environment for businesses

According to ANI reports, Prestige Biologics is planning a 226 billion won investment in its new manufacturing facility. A total of roughly 6.29 trillion won has been invested by 15 private enterprises. To stimulate investment, the government would develop a vaccination environment for businesses and improve fair policies. It also intends to increase its investment in the biopharmaceutical industry as a whole. Companies with insufficient money will also receive subsidies from the government. By the end of this year, it expects to support 14 enterprises with 18 billion won obtained from the extra budget in 2021 to help vaccine-related companies with investment ambitions but insufficient funding. The committee will form a new 'analytical and patent team,' which will compile vaccine-related patent studies and give personalised patent strategies for each company.

On November 2, the global vaccine hub preparation committee met for the second time at Seoul Post Tower, hosted by Prime Minister Kim Boo-gyeom, to review the progress of the government's global vaccine hub strategy and debate comprehensive plans for each field. Following the first meeting, which was presided over by President Moon Jae-in on August 5, the committee had its second meeting, with a total of 27 officials from the public and private sectors in attendance.

Since the Korea-US summit on May 21, the government claimed it has been cooperating with the US through the KORUS global vaccine partnership, and a vaccine cooperation agreement was inked in September in New York. Participants at the meeting also discussed strategies to build human resources by educating 60 trainees from Asian areas in Korea through cooperation with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), as well as producing vaccines and buying raw materials with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), ANI reported.

(With inputs from ANI)

(Image: ANI)