Fallout from COVID-19 Spread
Korean pharmaceutical companies are canceling their plans to attend conferences and marketing events in the United States and Europe as these countries restrict or ban travel to and from Korea due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) upgraded its travel alert on Korea to the highest level on Feb. 24 (local time). The United Kingdom makes travelers from Daegu and Cheongdo in Korea avoid contract with other people and report to public health and medical service organizations regardless of symptoms. On Feb. 25 (local time), the French government upgraded its Korean travel alert from the first stage (normal) to the third (recommendation to refrain from traveling to Korea) in connection with the spread of the highly contagious virus in Korea.
GC Pharma was due to attend an International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) meeting in Switzerland from Feb. 26 to 28, but recently decided not to. This meeting provides an opportunity to share the latest trends among flu vaccine makers among IFPMA members.
A symposium on the development of artificial intelligence (AI) medicine was slated to be jointly held in the United Kingdom by the Miller Institute of Cambridge and Yonsei University Severance Hospital but was canceled. At this event, Korean AI-based new drug development companies, Standigm and Syntekabio, were scheduled to make presentations on their technology. Earlier, the British government told those who visited nine regions -- Korea, China, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Macau -- and have trouble in breathing, have a fever and cough to stay at home and report to public health officials via its official website on Feb. 24.
In particular, Standigm canceled a plan to participate in an AI drug development workshop to be held by MIT in Boston, in late February. If Koreans infected with the COVID-19 virus continues to surge and the COVID-19 fiasco does not subside, Standigm will have to scratch off its schedule to attend a meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) to be held at the end of March.