The government announced that it is discussing with the goal of using an edible COVID-19 treatment developed by a foreign pharmaceutical company in Korea in January or February next year at the earliest.
Jung Eun-kyung, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), said, "We need approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety," and said, "We will shorten the introduction period as much as possible, We are discussing the goal of introducing it within February,” he said.
Merck, an American pharmaceutical company, applied for emergency use approval to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the 11th for molnupiravir, an oral treatment.
The Korean government is currently pursuing pre-purchase of 40,000 medicines with three global pharmaceutical companies, including Merck, Pfizer, and Roche, including a contract to pre-purchase 20,000 doses of molnupiravir with Merck.
Shin Hyun-young, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, said, "If we assume that 5,000 confirmed cases per day are prescribed for 365 days, 1.8 million people are needed. It should be magnified 10 times or more,” he asked the quarantine authorities.
Jung Eun-kyung, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, "I think 10 times more is necessary." "There is a clear need to secure additional oral treatments. It is important to secure a budget.
Currently, the budget for purchasing medicines for eating is 36.2 billion won.
(Photo = National Assembly Photo Reporters, Yonhap News)