About 60 percent of workers in the domestic pharmaceutical industry predicted that Korea would not be able to develop Covid-19 treatment, according to Blind, a community application in which Korean workers communicate anonymously.

In a survey of 839 employees in the pharmaceutical industry with a question, “Do you think that Covid-19 treatments or vaccines can be developed in Korea?” 25.3 percent answered yes, 60.3 percent said no, and 14.4 percent said they were not sure.

Among the participants, 36.7 percent of the employees who work in the research and development sector responded that they could develop a Covid-19 treatment or vaccine in Korea.

Celltrion employees predicted the highest success rate of 74.3 percent among pharmaceutical workers developing Covid-19 treatments or vaccines.

The company recently announced that it had entered phase 2 and 3 clinical or obtained significant results from animal studies.

Pharmaceutical industry workers projected Covid-19 medicine would be developed in the first half of 2021, and vaccines, after 2022.

Of the surveyed, 33.1 percent replied that the estimated time for vaccine development would be after 2021, followed by the first half of 2021 from 27.0 percent of respondents, and the second half of 2021 from 24.2 percent.

Nearly half, or 48 percent, of the respondents said the biggest obstacle in developing Covid-19 treatments and vaccines in Korea was the lack of coverage of possible losses in the case of failure.

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