By John Okeke
Korea has taken its first step toward becoming a global bio-manufacturing training hub, with the Ministry of Health and Welfare launching training courses in cooperation with international organizations. The courses are intended to assist efforts by low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to increase their vaccine production capacity.
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of local infrastructure for manufacturing vaccines and pharmaceuticals, not only to ensure sustainable supplies for the ongoing pandemic but also to prepare for future outbreaks.
However, a major barrier for the development of such infrastructure by LMICs has been a lack of skilled workers.
Against this backdrop, Korea, which boasts a well-established biotech industry, has joined international initiatives to support other countries to nurture bio-manufacturing experts in order to address vaccine inequality and enhance pandemic preparedness.
In February this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated Korea as a vaccine training hub to support LMICs’ efforts to produce biologics such as vaccines, insulin, monoclonal antibodies and cancer treatments.
Following a series of working-level discussions with WHO officials, the health ministry, in cooperation with the Seoul-based International Vaccine Institute (IVI), kicked off courses to train bio-manufacturing workers from overseas.
In July, the IVI conducted the 2022 Introductory Course for Biologics Development and Manufacturing which invited 117 trainees from 25 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda, Vietnam and Bangladesh, along with 33 Korean trainees.
With funding support from the Korean government, the two-week course was held July 18-29, during which the participants obtained necessary skills and capabilities for the entire cycle of vaccine development, production and licensing, as well as practical knowledge in related subjects such as health environment and policies, patents and intellectual property rights.
The trainees from abroad were mostly vaccine manufacturing personnel and officials from governments and public organizations in recipient countries linked to the mRNA technology transfer hub, a WHO-initiative based in South Africa, while the trainees from Korea included workers from vaccine and biopharmaceutical companies and graduate students majoring in related subjects.
The course also included on-site visits to advanced R&D facilities for vaccine and pharmaceuticals at nine leading local companies and organizations. The participants were offered a closer look inside facilities at Celltrion, Samsung Biologics, Cytiva, Yonsei University’s Korea National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (K-NIBRT), GC Biopharma, Sartorius Korea, Seoul National University (SNU) Hospital, SNU College of Pharmacy and Korea University College of Medicine.
“The WHO has established an mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub and workforce training hub to improve the vaccine accessibility of low- and middle-income countries. And now, we are happy to begin the training course in Korea based on the country’s excellent resources,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on July 18 in a video message for the welcoming session.
Another training course took place at the K-NIBRT center at Yonsei University International Campus in Songdo, Incheon, west of Seoul.
