The World Health Organization’s training program to turn Korea into a global hub to cultivate a bio workforce has begun in earnest.

GC Biopharma said it conducted the ‘2022 Introductory Course for Biologics Development and Manufacturing’ under the auspices of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) last Friday.

The company carried out the training program as the WHO designated Korea as the hub for training global bio manpower. Seven institutions, including GC Biopharma, are participating in the program. GC Biopharma gave a tour of its research facilities and a presentation on the development and manufacturing process of the flu vaccine. Twenty-nine students from 10 countries received the training.

“GC Biopharma secures diverse pipelines for commercialized vaccines, including influenza vaccines and those under development,” said Shin Youn-chul, head of GC Biopharma’s development team. “We hope that this program, which shares know-how and experiences of vaccine development, can help students become vaccine and biopharmaceutical specialists.”

The company said that Korea is the only country designated by the WHO as a global biomanufacturing training hub, a vaccine and biopharmaceutical manufacturing project established to provide the workforce for vaccine production bases.

As regional vaccine production becomes more important due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the global health agency is establishing vaccine production bases through building production facilities and technology transfers.