The COVID-19 pandemic was a blunt and universal reminder of the health and social imperative of vaccines. While vaccines may have typically been considered a childhood rite of passage, the global health community was suddenly faced with the unprecedented challenge of inoculating not only hundreds of millions of children for routine immunizations, but of vaccinating 8 billion people and boosting them against a pandemic.

This was a monumental undertaking, and every sector of the global health ecosystem had to come together for swift, equitable, and sustainable solutions.

IVI joined forces with over 20 partners to make COVID-19 vaccines a reality for all. However, these principles ensuring the most vulnerable communities around the world are protected against infectious diseases have been at the core of IVI’s work and mission to discover, develop, and deliver safe, effective, and affordable vaccines for global health.

This mission brought to market 3 WHO pre-qualified oral cholera vaccines and IVI is quickly approaching WHO PQ of a new typhoid conjugate vaccine to protect even more children against a poverty-associated disease.

As we celebrate 25 years of IVI and head into a new era of innovative vaccine research, development, and delivery, let’s look back on several defining moments in IVI history.

• In October 1997, IVI was officially established under the Vienna Convention as an independent international organization based in Seoul, Republic of Korea. This year marks IVI’s 25th anniversary.

• In January 2000, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded IVI its first grant, the Diseases of the Most Impoverished (DOMI) Program, to conduct burden of disease studies for cholera, typhoid fever, and shigellosis as well as cost-effectiveness and policy studies, vaccine development and process research, and to provide technical assistance and training.

• In May 2000, IVI hosted its first annual International Vaccinology Course, a week-long training program to strengthen vaccinology capacity in Asia-Pacific countries by providing scientists, public health officials, and decision-makers a comprehensive overview of the vaccine continuum. Through 2019, over 1,500 trainees attended the course at IVI Headquarters and in 2021, IVI held its 20th edition virtually with nearly 7,500 total registrations from 155 countries.

• In June 2003, IVI moved into its current headquarters building in Seoul, donated by the government of the Republic of Korea, and launched its laboratory division. In 2008, IVI established BSL3+ labs to enable research on more dangerous pathogens.

• In July 2006, IVI launched the Cholera Vaccine Initiative to develop and introduce new oral cholera vaccines in countries with endemic and epidemic cholera, setting the stage for the development of IVI’s oral cholera vaccine.

• IVI established its Policy & Economic Research capability in 2008 to support evidence-based decision-making for vaccine discovery and use. Following a WHO SAGE recommendation, IVI published its landmark global investment case for the introduction of oral cholera vaccine in 2013 with support from the Gates Foundation and the governments of Sweden, ROK, and Kuwait.

• In April 2010, IVI launched its Typhoid Fever Surveillance in sub-Saharan Africa Program (TSAP), an initiative supported by the Gates Foundation to assess typhoid burden in 10 African countries. IVI continues the research with the Severe Typhoid in Africa Program (SETA) Plus and the Effect of a novel typhoid conjugate vaccine-TCV-in Africa (THECA) program to support the introduction of typhoid conjugate vaccine in Africa.

• In February 2011, IVI launched the Dengue Vaccine Initiative in collaboration with the Sabin Vaccine Institute, Johns Hopkins University, and the World Health Organization with support from the Gates Foundation to explore vaccine development for dengue fever control.

• In September 2011, the World Health Organization pre-qualified Shanchol™ oral cholera vaccine (OCV), a vaccine developed by IVI and produced by Shantha Biotechnics. Two other OCV products, Euvichol® and Euvichol-Plus®, developed through IVI’s technology transfer to EuBiologics, were pre-qualified in 2015 and 2017, respectively. As of 2021, over 75 million doses of OCV were administered in more than 25 countries worldwide.

• In 2018, IVI launched a Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine single-dose impact study in Thailand with support from the Gates Foundation. The study aims to measure the effectiveness of a single dose of the available vaccines (which are currently administered in a 2- or 3-dose regimen) to inform the most cost-effective approach to HPV vaccination and global public health policy.

• In November 2019, IVI was granted Good Clinical Laboratory Practice certification by the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, enabling a more significant role in vaccine development.

• In December 2020, the Expert Committee on Biological Standardization established the WHO International Standard and Reference Panel for anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody, a global collaboration including IVI’s lab scientists to support the development of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. IVI is partnering with over 20 organizations, from the laboratory through and beyond licensure, to move multiple COVID-19 vaccine candidates from testing to real-world impact.

• In 2021, IVI completed Phase III clinical studies in Nepal and the Philippines for a novel typhoid conjugate vaccine (Vi-DT) in collaboration with SK bioscience and Biofarma. This vaccine is IVI’s second vaccine developed in-house following the oral cholera vaccine.

• In August 2021, IVI completed the First Subject First Dose of a multi-country late-stage clinical study to assess a Chikungunya vaccine candidate with Bharat Biotech. These studies are IVI’s first in the Latin America region.