News
2022.03.30
The KHUB Vaccine Consortium led by the Chairperson of the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization (CEO of Hanmi Pharmaceutical) to prepare for future pandemics will be launched as a has been established as KHUB Science Park (KSP) along with a bio startup from Oxford University.
The members of the consortium have agreed that the Korean bio industry has been tasked to develop vaccine technology as a result of the COVID-19, and full support from the government and close cooperation among relevant companies and institutions are absolutely essential.
The consortium will form global partnerships by establishing KHUB Science Park for bio start-ups in the UK, known for its advanced vaccine technology, for Korean and British bio startups. The necessary procedures for establishing the foundation are being discussed with the British Embassy and the UK Department for International Trade (DIT) to promote cooperation among the industry, academia, research institutes, and government agencies in the UK. Meanwhile, in Korea, it is planning to establish the infrastructure necessary for vaccine research and production in Pohang Penta City to serve as a global vaccine hub.
Chairman Chong-Yoon Lim said, “KHUB Science Park will be a vaccine hub meeting the international standards capable of performing all the functions of the vaccine industry, from education and research to clinical trials and production. [...] We will contribute to the establishment Pohang in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province as a global vaccine hub by presenting a best case of a public project characterized by cooperation among the industry, academia, research institutes, and government agencies and by pursuing balanced regional development, which has emerged as a national issue.”
KHUB Science Park will provide human resources training and research and production facilities necessary to secure public goods such as raw materials for vaccines and diagnostic devices. It will contain modularized automated production facilities capable of vaccine production using proteins from animal and plant cell cultures and preclinical and small-scale multi-variety production, in addition to genetic vaccines.
Its establishment will be completed in three phases under a five-year plan. The facilities are being designed in conformance with the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) for the production of an mRNA vaccine currently being discussed with a British bioventure and a plant-derived COVID-19 vaccine from BioApp, a company specializing in green vaccines based in Pohang.
The KHUB Vaccine Consortium consists of Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group, COREE, Dx&Vx, BioApp, Herings, GS Neotek, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Global Infectious Disease Research Institute of Seoul National University College of Medicine, Hanyang University Life Science and Technology Institute, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, Pohang City, etc.
Source: e-Today