World Heath Organization moves forward on its goal : a global biomanuafacturing hub opens in Republish of Korea
This hub aims at producing vaccines, insulin, monocloan antibodies and cancer treatments for any country in the world. It is the second step to move the goal to another place. The latest was in South Africa that European Union contributed
Europe was a pioneer in proposing the ACT-A mechanism to the G20. Close to 450 million doses have already been provided via COVAX. Europeans have shared a total of 145 million of their vaccine doses and the goal is to triple that figure by mid-2022. In addition to the donation of doses, the European Union has committed alongside African actors to step up the deployment of these vaccines, and has contributed to the transfer of technology and the development of vaccine manufacturing on the African continent (MAV+ initiative). It will continue these efforts to achieve African health resilience and to strengthen African public health system.
In Korea, WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared
One of the key barriers to successful technology transfer in low- and middle-income countries is the lack of a skilled workforce and weak regulatory systems. Building those skills will ensure that they can manufacture the health products they need at a good quality standard so that they no longer have to wait at the end of the queue.
According to the World Health Organization team observed the Government of the Republic of Korea contributed to facilitate the work outside Seoul city. It has started to carry out biomanufacturing training for companies based in the country and expand their knowledge to other countries.
The new WHO Academy will build in Lyon. Some weeks ago, the EU Foreign and Health Ministers and Health Commissioner discussed on European expertise and the strengths of territories in Member States and concluded that the WHO Academy will be in this city. As The French Health Minister, Oliver Veran noticed Lyon stay one of Health and research place that has known some years ago. Not far too from WHO in Geneva, the relations on research are crucial together. The conference welcomed Mr WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who reminded the importance to work together.
Lyon hosts the offices of the WHO International Health Regulations (IHR), the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and the WHO Academy, and where the Replenishment Conference of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was held in 2019, raising $14 billion.
Yesterday, the first EU forum for cooperation of Indo-pacific organized in Paris with leaders from the Asia and Ocean Pacific to strengthen their cooperation in a number of areas as Health and to continue their exchanges.
In Korea the global biomanuafacturing hub The Minister of Health and Welfare of Republic of Korea welcomed this initiative and stated:
Just 60 years ago, Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world. With the help and support of WHO and the international community, we have transitioned into a country with a strong public health system and bio-industry. Korea deeply cherishes the solidarity that the international community has shown us during our transition. By sharing these lessons we’ve learnt from our own experience in the past, we will strive to support the low- and middle-income countries in strengthening their biomanufacturing capabilities so that we could pave the way together towards a safer world during the next pandemic.
In parallel, WHO is intensifying regulatory system strengthening through its Global Benchmarking Tool (GBT), an instrument that assesses regulatory authorities’ maturity level. The GBT will serve as the main parameter for WHO to include national regulators in the WHO-listed Authorities list. Another aim is to build a network of regional centres of excellence that will act as advisers and guides for countries with weaker regulatory systems.
Five more countries will also receive support from the global mRNA hub in South Africa: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Serbia and Vietnam. These countries were vetted by a group of experts and proved that they had the capacity to absorb the technology and, with targeted training, move to production stage relatively quickly.
Indonesia who will chair the G20 next november. Minister of Foreign Affairs Mrs Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi explained her situation:
Indonesia is one of the countries that continuously supports vaccine equity and equal access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, including through transfer of vaccine technology and know-how to developing countries.This transfer of technology will contribute to equal access to health countermeasures, which will help us to recover together and recover stronger. This is the kind of solution that developing countries need. A solution that empowers and strengthens our self-reliance, as well as a solution that allows us to contribute to global health resilience.
Vietnam as a country that has a few cases in the begining of the pandemic. Dr Nguyen Thanh Long, Minister of Health of Viet Nam testified around the leaders
Although Viet Nam is a developing country, we have had a lot of experience in vaccine development over the past decades. Our National Regulatory Authority (NRA) has also been recognized by WHO. We believe that in participating in this initiative, Viet Nam will produce the mRNA vaccine not only for domestic consumption but also for other countries in the region and the world, contributing to reducing inequalities in access to vaccines.
Numerous countries responded to the call for expressions of interest from the technology transfer hub in late 2021. WHO will provide support to all of the respondents but is currently prioritizing countries that do not have mRNA technology but already have some biomanufacturing infrastructure and capacity. WHO will enter into discussions with other interested countries and other mRNA technology recipients will be announced in the coming months.
