SEOUL– The head of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) said Tuesday that South Korea will play a pivotal role in achieving the global goal to give worldwide access to vaccines against emerging infectious diseases.
“Every region in the world should be able to manufacture vaccines for its own use, and every region should have access to rapid response platforms,” Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI, said during a keynote speech at the ongoing 2022 World Bio Summit in Seoul.
“Korea will play a leading role in this effort, as it is the best example, a country committing itself to its goal of vaccine self efficiency.”
CEPI is an Oslo-based international public-private partnership to finance independent research projects to develop vaccines against emerging viral threats.
He said South Korea has made constant efforts to map out effective industrial polices to develop its own vaccine production programs and achieved the goal to produce its homegrown COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic.
Local drugmaker SK bioscience produced SKYCovione, South Korea’s first COVID-19 vaccine, and received state approval in June.
The World Health Organization (WHO) designated Korea as the global biomanufacturing training hub as part of its aim to support the transfer of pharmaceutical technologies to low- and middle-income countries.
“Korea, indeed, has much to teach and share with the world,” Hatchett said.
Jerome Kim, director general of the Seoul-based International Vaccine Institute, said the yearslong COVID-19 pandemic has been an important breakthrough in the development of vaccines.
“The COVID-19 crisis has definitely taught us the meaning and implications of vaccine innovation,” Kim said during the same event, citing the invention of new mRNA vaccines. “This kind of innovation was brought forward by the crisis. This is a good thing.”
But he noted a majority of people in underdeveloped regions still have limited access to inoculation, and this is a bigger problem than supplying and manufacturing vaccines.
“Two thirds of the world have received at least a single dose, but in low-income countries, 77 percent of people are unvaccinated and have not seen a single dose,” he said. “Access and equity are a major problem.”
Under the theme of “The Future of Vaccine and Bio-health,” the World Bio Summit, co-hosted by South Korea and WHO, is aimed at sharing the latest technological improvements in vaccines and the bio-health industry, and discussing ways to increase preparedness for future pandemics.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol gave opening remarks, while Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, participated in the two-day event online.
Source: Yonhap News Agency