S. Korea working on deal to buy Pfizer pills for around 300,000 people

김총리 "화이자 먹는 치료제 계약 마무리 단계…30만명분 상회" Right... Soa... thank you... for the global COVID-19 tallies... over the past 24 hours. For more... on... RELATED NEWS... I have Kim YEON-SEUNG ... here... in the studio. Yeon-seung... welcome. Happy to be here Sunny. So... Korea is planning... to purchase... MORE... of Pfizer's anti-viral drug? Well this COVID-19 pill,... Paxlovid... has been hailed as a game-changer by some,... and it might be purchased by Korea... in greater amounts... than was earlier suggested. First take a listen to what the Prime Minister said earlier today in regards to the new pills. "The government has been working out a deal with Pfizer for enough doses to cover 300-thousand or more people,... well above the 70-thousand earlier pledged. We're now in the final stages of that deal and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency will soon make an announcement." Further details of this plan will be unveiled before the end of the year. The country also struck an earlier deal with Merck... for 242-thousand courses of its oral COVID drug, Molnupiravir. However,... both Pfizer and Merck's COVID-19 pill... are still under review... by Korea's drug regulator... and neither has been approved just yet. Right... but... over in the U.S.... BOTH PILLS have NOW been approved? Yes that's right. The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency-use authorization... for Molnupirvir,... just a day after clearing the path for Paxlovid. However,... Merck's drug comes with a warning... that pregnant women should not use the drug... over the possibility of birth defects. Also,... it may be less potent in treating severe infections compared to Paxlovid. In clinical trials,... Molnupiravir lowered the rates of hospitalization and death by 30 percent,... which is only one-third as effective as Paxlovid. So Pfizer's drug... appears likely to take the lead,... with Merck's pill being administered when Paxlovid is unavailable,... or if it's specifically recommended for certain patients. On the vaccine front. I hear... there have been some findings... about ASTRAZENECA's efficacy... against OMICRON? Right. Recent Oxford lab studies suggested that recipients had developed effective levels of neutralizing antibodies against Omicron after three doses of AstraZeneca. Neutralizing levels against Omicron after three doses were on roughly on par... to the levels against Delta developed after two shots. Although the results of this study had not yet been peer-reviewed, it's a much-needed boost... for one of the most controversial vaccines on the market today. AstraZeneca for its part... says it is currently working on a modified vaccine... that is tailored to fight against the Omicron. Also... on the subject... of vaccinations... YEON-SEUNG... what is Korea's stance... with regard to BOOSTER SHOTS... for those... who have recovered... from BREAKTHROUGH INFECTIONS? Well as for South Korea,... health authorities remain undecided on that issue. They said Thursday that they're looking over domestic and overseas studies... to determine whether it's necessary for fully-vaccinated, infected patients to get boosted. But right now,... they are not recommending top-up shots for breakthrough cases,... because these patients may have already developed further immunity... through a natural infection. But this may change... depending on the developments of our Omicron situation. All right... Yeon-seung... thank you for now... BUT DO STAY... for the BROADER TALKS. #COVID19 #vaccine #pill 📣 Arirang News(Facebook) :   / arirangtvnews   📣 Arirang News(Twitter) :   / arirangtvnews   📣 News Center(YouTube) :    / newscenter_arirangtv   2021-12-24, 14:00 (KST)