VITAL-Korea

Seong Baik Lin, Director General of the Vaccine Innovative Technology Alliance Korea, on Oct. 6 told Korea.net at Yonsei University in Seoul that the country needs ''vaccine sovereignty'' because COVID-19 is just one of several infectious diseases to watch out for. (Jeon Han)

By Kim Young Deok and Yoon Sojung

Seoul | Oct. 6, 2020

''We must secure vaccine sovereignty by building an infrastructure for vaccine development,'' the director general of the Vaccine Innovative Technology Alliance Korea said.

In an Oct. 6 interview with Korea.net at his Yonsei University office in Seoul's Seodaemun-gu District, Seong Baik Lin said, ''If we have such infrastructure, we can quickly change the vaccines developed into those for COVID-19 or influenza.''

Seong urged Korea to establish ''vaccine sovereignty'' to prepare for another pandemic.

Advanced countries like the U.K., Germany and the U.S. are taking the lead in developing new medicines and moving on to Phase 3 of clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines because they all have vaccine sovereignty, he said.

''We could face another infectious disease like 'Corona X,''' he said. ''Building the infrastructure for another possible outbreak is crucial.''

''With a long-term plan and accumulated technology, Korea can stand out on the front line of fighting all viruses.''

Launched in July this year, the alliance leads a government-funded research and development (R&D) project. With a budget of KRW 200 billion, this public initiative aims to bolster national competitiveness in vaccine development technology and stabilize domestic vaccine supply by 2029.

After graduating from Seoul National University's College of Pharmacy, Seong earned a master's in biotechnology from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and a Ph.D. in biology from MIT in the U.S. He joined Yonsei University as a professor of biotechnology in 1998 and retired in August this year.

His latest position is special professor at Yonsei's College of Medicine.

Korea.net interviewed Seong on Oct. 6 to learn more about Korea's development of vaccines against COVID-19.

- Why does vaccine sovereignty matter?

Under ordinary conditions, it takes at least ten years to develop and inoculate a vaccine. In the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, I doubt that ten years of development will be useful. We need a new paradigm for vaccine development to catch up with the speed of the virus spread. In advanced countries such as the U.K., the U.S. and Germany, they have about ten candidate vaccines that quickly approached the third phase of clinical trials. The longtime accumulation of technology has enabled these countries to do so. Once they develop vaccines backed by vaccine development infrastructure, they can quickly change their developed vaccines into those for influenza or COVID-19. Vaccine sovereignty is crucial for this.

- The world is closely following the development of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. What stage is Korea in?

The country's vaccine development companies include GC Pharma, SK Bioscience and LG Chem. Among them, SK is developing a synthetic antigen vaccine at the fastest speed in Korea. Though it hasn't entered the clinical trial stage, I believe the company will in November.

- What is the alliance's role in domestic vaccine development?

The alliance is a long-term national program supported for ten years. It has two main goals, the first being the setup of ''vaccine sovereignty.'' Korea's self-supply of vaccines for all infectious diseases is 40%. One of our goals is to raise vaccine self-sufficiency to 80% over the next ten years so that immediate action can be taken if difficulties arise in global vaccine supply. We haven't developed vaccines for other diseases in the world. Our second goal is to develop vaccines to respond to the global issue of infectious diseases and make Korea one of the world's top five vaccine suppliers.

- Is the development of COVID-19 vaccines part of the alliance's bid to achieve vaccine self-sufficiency?

COVID-19 was absent when the alliance was formed in 2018. Earlier this year, however, public awareness of the crisis of the novel coronavirus suddenly heightened. The alliance is broadening its goals to develop generic technologies to cope with future pandemics as well as develop COVID-19 vaccines.

- Advanced countries have started Phase 3 of clinical trials in their development of COVID-19 vaccines.

In advanced countries, AstraZeneca of the U.K. is one of ten vaccine candidates that have entered Phase 3 of clinical tests. The U.S. has the Pfizer and Novavax vaccine platforms. These vaccines each have their own strengths and weaknesses and could all be used in the end. The problem is global pressure to quickly develop vaccines. Vaccines could turn out less effective. More importantly, the fear is of vaccine development without sufficient testing to ensure safety.

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