November 22, 2022, SEOUL, Republic of Korea – The Global Vaccine Leading Technology Center (GVL) in the Republic of Korea and the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on November 21 to cooperate in vaccine development for global health. The MOU signing ceremony at the Lotte Hotel Seoul was attended by Prof. Jeong-taek Woo, Head, Prof. Kyung-Sik Yoon, Head of Operation, and Prof. MiSuk Lee, Head of Planning at GVL; Dr. Jerome Kim, Director General, Dr. Manki Song, Deputy Director General of Science, and Dr. Kyung-Taik Han, Deputy Director General for Government and Public Relations at IVI.
Under the MOU, GVL and IVI have agreed to contribute to global health through the development and distribution of next-generation vaccines. To this end, they will seek proactive exchange of research findings, technology and information for the development of infectious disease vaccines; mutual cooperation to secure joint research grants; cooperation in the full cycle of vaccine candidate discovery, non-clinical and clinical trials; expansion of exchange to expedite research result sharing and early vaccine commercialization; and exchange of infectious disease experts and conduct of joint forums in vaccine development between the two organizations and related partners.
Prof. Jeong-taek Woo, Head of GVL, said, “By signing an MOU with IVI, the world’s only international organization dedicated to the development of public vaccines, GVL will contribute to the development and commercialization of vaccines for not only Koreans but also global health.”
Dr. Jerome Kim, Director General of IVI, said “GVL and IVI share the goal of accelerating the discovery and commercialization of cutting-edge next-generation vaccines and vaccine technologies. This partnership will empower IVI, GVL and our mutual partners to advance the development of vaccines against infectious diseases affecting both high-income countries including Korea and low- and middle-income countries and to secure vaccine solutions to future pandemics.”
GVL was launched in January 2022 with the support of the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare with the aim of promptly responding to crises of new and variant infectious diseases and establishing a full-cycle vaccine development hub to lead the domestic vaccine industry to the global market. Through 2026, GVL will carry out three major projects, namely the development of technologies for universal and rapidly developed vaccines, the development of high value-added premium vaccines for future economic growth, and the development of fundamental vaccine technologies. These projects are being implemented under one program that oversees specific tasks to support and efficiently execute research projects and to achieve the goal of speedy commercialization.