• Holmgren recognized for developing the world’s first effective oral cholera vaccine
• Graham and McLellan recognized for pioneering work on the structure of viral spike proteins and the development of COVID-19 and RSV vaccines
• Award Ceremony to take place at Plaza Seoul Hotel on April 25

March 14, 2024, SEOUL, Korea – The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) and SK bioscience jointly announce Prof. Jan Holmgren of Sweden, and Profs. Barney Graham and Jason McLellan of the United States as the winners of the 2024 IVI-SK Bioscience Park MahnHoon Award.

“IVI joins SK bioscience and the global vaccine community to extend warm congratulations to Prof. Jan Holmgren, and Profs. Barney Graham and Jason McLellan on their selection as recipients of the third IVI-SK bioscience Park MahnHoon Award,” said Dr. Jerome Kim, IVI Director General. “Prof. Holmgren spearheaded the development of the world’s first oral cholera vaccine (OCV) that has saved countless lives worldwide.  Profs. Graham and McLellan have made a remarkable contribution to our understanding of vaccine antigen structures that induce protective antibody responses, advances that were used in many of the widely-used COVID-19 vaccines and solved a decades-old problem for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines.  These insights will continue to inform structure-based vaccine design for future vaccines as well.”

The IVI-SK bioscience Park MahnHoon Award annually honors up to two individuals and/or groups that have made extraordinary contributions to the discovery, development and delivery of vaccines and the advancement of global health. The award was launched in 2022 to commemorate the legacy of the late Vice Chairman Dr. Park MahnHoon of SK bioscience. This year’s Award Ceremony will take place in Seoul on April 25, the third anniversary of the passing of Dr. Park. SK bioscience contributes funding for two 100 million Korean won (approx. US$80,000) annual prizes to IVI for the awards.

Prof. Jan Holmgren is a distinguished physician and vaccinologist from the University of Gothenburg, and the developer of the world’s first effective OCV. Prof. Holmgren’s research gave fundamental new knowledge on the pathogenesis and immune mechanisms in cholera and  proved, in collaboration with Dr. Ann-Mari Svennerholm, that IgA immunity on the gut mucosal surface was crucial for immune protection, which paved the way for oral cholera vaccines. He thus provided a critical solution for the global threat of the cholera pandemic, while demonstrating the importance of mucosal immunity and the effectiveness of OCV. Moreover, he collaborated with Prof. John D. Clemens, former Director General of IVI, to address cost and delivery limitations for public health use of the original OCV, Dukoral, and they developed an improved OCV ‘Shanchol’ in the 2000s, which offers affordable protection for people in low-income countries, and demonstrated the concept of ‘herd immunity´as being instrumental in further increasing the protective impact of OCV and preventing and controlling cholera outbreaks. As a result, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended OCV for countries battling cholera in 2010, while the WHO and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, jointly created an OCV stockpile for use in global cholera crises. OCV is now a cornerstone, together with clean water and improved sanitation, in WHO´s ‘Ending Cholera: A Global Roadmap to 2030.’

Prof. Barney Graham, professor of Medicine & Microbiology, Biochemistry, Immunology and Senior Advisor for Global Health Equity at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, is a renowned immunologist, virologist, and vaccinologist. As a thought leader on emerging viral diseases and pandemic preparedness, Prof. Graham is recognized for his groundbreaking work in viral pathogenesis and vaccine development, and for leadership and expertise in structure-based vaccine design, and mRNA technology. Notably, he has made significant contributions to understanding RSV pathogenesis and immunity, and the application of atomic-level structure, protein-engineering, mRNA delivery technology for making safe and effective vaccines. His research has also included the evaluation of vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for HIV, Ebola, and chikungunya, as well as the development of novel vaccines for RSV, influenza, Zika, paramyxoviruses, and coronaviruses.

Partnering with pioneering structural biologist Jason McLellan, Prof. Graham championed a method to stabilize the prefusion shape of viral surface proteins, first for RSV and then for coronaviruses — a breakthrough applied later in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. During the pandemic, Prof. Graham’s laboratory at the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the US National Institutes of Health, partnered with Moderna to advance vaccine technology. He and McLellan played a crucial role in designing a spike protein to combat the virus.

Prof. Jason McLellan, professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences at The University of Texas at Austin, is a leading researcher in viral and bacterial proteins. His pioneering work in understanding protein structure and function and in developing stabilizing modifications for prefusion proteins have played a pivotal role in the creation of vaccines and potential treatments for deadly pathogens afflicting billions of people. Prof. McLellan’s technology is integral to leading COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax) that have saved millions of lives. The proteins his team designed also underpin vaccines against RSV, which is particularly dangerous for children and seniors.

These awardees have been selected by the IVI Award Selection Committee of 12 world-leading vaccine and health experts. Dr. Christian Mandl, chair of the committee (and IVI’s Scientific Advisory Group), said, “We have reviewed the qualifications of some of the most recognized vaccinologists and global health leaders. The selection of these awardees is testament to their extraordinary contributions to breakthrough discoveries in vaccinology, the development of novel vaccines, and the invaluable impact of these vaccines on the health of people around the world.”

Mr. Jaeyong Ahn, President & CEO of SK bioscience, said, “I would like to congratulate and thank all the recipients of this year’s Park MahnHoon Award. Inheriting the spirit of our late Vice Chairman Park MahnHoon, who strived to promote global health by developing the typhoid vaccine in collaboration with IVI and other vaccines against infectious diseases, SK bioscience will continue to fulfill its responsibility to humanity.”

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About the International Vaccine Institute (IVI)

The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) is a non-profit international organization established in 1997 at the initiative of the United Nations Development Programme with a mission to discover, develop, and deliver safe, effective, and affordable vaccines for global health.

IVI’s current portfolio includes vaccines at all stages of pre-clinical and clinical development for infectious diseases that disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries, such as cholera, typhoid, chikungunya, shigella, salmonella, schistosomiasis, hepatitis E, HPV, COVID-19, and more. IVI developed the world’s first low-cost oral cholera vaccine, pre-qualified by the World Health Organization (WHO), and developed a new-generation typhoid conjugate vaccine that also achieved WHO prequalification in early 2024.

IVI is headquartered in Seoul, Republic of Korea with a Europe Regional Office in Sweden, an Africa Regional Office in Rwanda, a Country Office in Austria, and a Country and Project Office in Kenya. IVI additionally co-founded the Hong Kong Jockey Club Global Health Institute in Hong Kong and hosts Collaborating Centers in Ghana, Ethiopia, and Madagascar. 39 countries and the WHO are members of IVI, and the governments of the Republic of Korea, Sweden, India, Finland, and Thailand provide state funding. For more information, please visit https://www.ivi.int.

About Dr. Park MahnHoon

Dr. Park MahnHoon (1957-2021), the late former Vice Chairman of SK bioscience, is a vaccine pioneer who is credited for elevating South Korea’s vaccine R&D capabilities up to the global standard while leading the company’s vaccine and R&D projects. Dr. Park made significant contributions to the development of new vaccines including the joint development of an innovative pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) with SANOFI-Pasteur, and the development of a novel typhoid conjugate vaccine (licensed in Korea in 2022) in collaboration with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation In addition, he took the lead in establishing Korea’s vaccine sovereignty through the rapid development and localization of safe and effective vaccines based on cell culture technology. The world’s first cell-culture quadrivalent flu vaccine (2015), a pneumococcal vaccine (2016), and the world’s second shingles vaccine (2017) from SK bioscience are some of major achievements of Dr. Park who devoted his entire life to vaccine research.