백신개발 어디까지 왔나... WHO내 자문 박사가 말하는 코로나19백신

Health authorities in South Korea has announced that the International Vaccine Institute will start clinical trials of a vaccine for COVID-19 in this country as early as June.
Our Kim Bo-kyoung spoke with a member of the WHO's vaccine task force to find out more.
The International Vaccine Institute is preparing to do clinical trials in South Korea of a vaccine made by the U.S. company Inovio Pharmaceuticals.
Phase one of human trials for the INO-4800 vaccine candidate start in June on 40 people, and this will then be expanded to at least 120 people in phase two.
"The INO-4800 vaccine contains the DNA for the spike protein which is on the surface of the coronavirus. If these plasmids come into our body, the spike protein will be expressed in our cells making our body's immune system react to it. Afterwards, when our body is infected with the virus, our immune system will stop the virus."
This expert working in a vaccine task force at the World Health Organization says this DNA-based vaccine can be developed in a relatively short time compared to other vaccine candidates.
"The DNA vaccine platform has gone through several clinical trials worldwide and South Korea has also done this with MERS. So the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety is expected to approve clinical trials for this vaccine without toxicity studies on animals."
This DNA vaccine has lots of merits,... yet the real concern is how long it will take to develop.
"It can take more than 10 years to develop a vaccine for some viruses. Given the current circumstances, one expert says this vaccine might be ready in around a year, but that's the soonest it will be available."
Two-phase clinical tests of the vaccine can start right away and these take about a year.
If there are no side effects, the vaccine can be used in emergencies,... but it might take several more years to complete the third phase of human testing.
KIM Bo-kyoung, Arirang News.