TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga urged officials Tuesday to strengthen the country’s ability to develop and produce COVID-19 vaccines.
“Establishing a system to develop and produce the vaccine domestically and to inoculate it promptly is extremely important for people’s health and in terms of crisis management,” Suga told a meeting of his task force for promoting health.
Suga said that despite the prolonged pandemic, Japan has not put a domestically made vaccine into practical use yet and is dependent on supplies from the United States and Europe.
Japan needs to have a world-leading hub for vaccine research and development, improve the clinical trial and approval process and beef up production capacity, Suga said.
JIJI Press