The World Health Organization and the Republic of Korea signed an important agreement to increase bio production capacity

The World Health Organization and the Republic of Korea have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish an international training center in biomanufacturing. This global training center serves all low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to produce biologics such as vaccines, insulin, monoclonal antibodies, and cancer drugs.

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of local and regional scale-up of vaccines and other essential health products in LMICs to ensure equitable access.

To provide countries with the know-how to rapidly produce RNA vaccines, the World Health Organization, in collaboration with partners, officially launched the mRNA Technology Transfer Program in South Africa in April 2023.

This multi-stakeholder effort and other recent domestic production initiatives will require greater workforce development strategies to recruit, hire and retain workers at these facilities, which require specialized skills in bioproduction.

To address this gap, the World Health Organization and the Republic of Korea have been working in close collaboration for over a year, and are now formalizing their commitment to establish an international training center in biomammanufacturing.

We are pleased to sign this MoU to take our partnership to the next level and collaborate to develop a comprehensive training curriculum. “We hope that this world-class training center will help build a skilled workforce and produce quality health products around the world,” said Dr. Yukiko Nakatani, Assistant Director General of Access to Medicines and Health Products.

The government of the Republic of Korea is providing a number of national training institutions and programs covering the entire field of biological manufacturing, and is expanding its work to host trainees from other countries with the construction of the Global Bio Education Campus starting in 2025.

“I hope this MoU will enhance cooperation between the Republic of Korea and WHO and strengthen the biomanufacturing capacity of LMICs,” said Mr. Hwang Sengkyun, Executive Director of the International Center for Immunization, Ministry of Health and Welfare of the Republic of Korea.

In parallel, the World Health Organization is strengthening the regulatory system to ensure the quality and safety of health products. Stronger regulatory agencies increase trust in domestically produced products and misinformation and unsafe standardized or counterfeit drugs.