The Ministery of Food and Drug Safety and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said they will conduct a two-day tabletop exercise (Table Top Exercise, TTX) on vaccine development and approval strategies assuming a pandemic crisis at the Seoul Royal Park Convention from Feb. 5 to 6.
This exercise is led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) with participation from the International Vaccine Institute (IVI). It is the first joint tabletop exercise involving domestic and international agencies, including the Ministery of Food and Drug Safety, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, CEPI and IVI.
The exercise assumes a scenario in which "Disease X," a term used by the World Health Organization (WHO) to refer to a hypothetical novel infectious disease, has emerged in Korea. The core goals are to review the end-to-end response system from pathogen acquisition to vaccine development, clinical trials, approval and production, and to share response measures for crisis situations.
Through this exercise, the Ministery of Food and Drug Safety and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency plan to review the division of roles and cooperation framework between the public and private sectors and identify potential bottlenecks that could arise in the linkage from vaccine development to approval and production. They will also review international cooperation for rapid vaccine supply in a pandemic and the national infectious disease crisis management system.
Oh Yu-Kyoung, head of the Ministery of Food and Drug Safety, said, "This is an opportunity to comprehensively assess the capabilities needed for the rapid development and approval of vaccines under an assumed real-world crisis," adding, "We will strengthen our regulatory response system so that rapid and safe vaccine approvals and releases can be achieved even during public health emergencies, based on cooperation with international organizations and related agencies."
Im Seung-gwan, commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, said, "Rapid development and supply of vaccines in pandemic response is a national task directly tied to security," adding, "Through this joint tabletop exercise, we will review a vaccine development–regulation linkage system that functions even during infectious disease crises."