World Bio Summit calls for stronger global vaccine alliances after pandemic

President Yoon Suk-yeol delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the World Bio Summit 2022 at Grand Walkerhill Seoul in Gwangjin District, Tuesday. The event was co-hosted by Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare and the World Health Organization. Yonhap

Global health leaders gather in Seoul to revisit pandemic, its impact on world

By Ko Dong-hwan

President Yoon Suk-yeol said Tuesday South Korea is willing to provide its domestically developed vaccines to underdeveloped countries that are prone to infectious diseases, in a speech given at World Bio Summit 2022 held at Grand Walkerhill Seoul.

"The Korean government has pledged $300 million to The Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, $100 million to the Global Fund for ending the world's three most contagious diseases and $30 million to the World Bank's global financing pool," he said. "Korea has also successfully developed a COVID-19 vaccine and will provide it to countries in need. As the bio manpower training hub as designated by the WHO, we will also support countries to increase their vaccine production capabilities."

He said Korea is working to establish a research foundation for novel contagious and rare diseases, as well as preparing a fund for the country's bio health industry.

President Yoon said that the international community has learned valuable lessons about the need for solidarity and cooperation beyond borders over the past three years of fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, so as to be prepared for other infectious diseases and health crises.

Global leaders in the bio health industry and international alliances striving to keep pandemics at bay gathered in Seoul on Tuesday for the summit. The two-day event hosted by Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) examined how countries have struggled with the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed over 6.5 million lives, and discussed how they should respond to future pandemics.

President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during the opening ceremony of the World Bio Summit 2022 at the Grand Walkerhill Seoul in Gwangjin District, Tuesday. Newsis

The event drew key figures from around the world who have realized their capabilities and limitations in fighting pandemics. Some advanced countries developed vaccines, treatments and diagnostic devices in a short span of time. But these accomplishments were out of reach for most of the underdeveloped countries that had neither the skills nor funds to do so. Such circumstances contrast with the imbalanced distribution of medical breakthroughs across borders have fueled a strenuous contagious cycle of COVID-19 waves that still persist after more than two years.

The world has learned two lessons from COVID-19 as outlined during this summit. First, a pandemic should be responded to swiftly and equitably for the benefit of all countries. To do so, secondly, global alliances in development, production and distribution of medical products and technologies need improvement. This includes the delivery of vaccines to disadvantaged countries and saving the lives of as many people there as in advanced countries.

"Some 12.86 billion doses of vaccines have been given and 68 percent of the global population have been vaccinated at least once as of Oct. 22," International Vaccine Institute (IVI) Director-General Jerome Kim said during the summit's opening day. "But over 76 percent of people in least developed countries were still unvaccinated during the same period. And 85 percent of vaccine doses have been used by high- and upper-middle-income countries. This failure of equity and access resulted in more human deaths, greater economic impact and more biological mutants."

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Asian Development Bank President Asakawa Masatsugu, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivered speeches on Tuesday. Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) CEO Richard Hatchett and former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon were also among the day's presenters either in person or on screen. Representatives of global pharmaceutical enterprises also took to the stage, including those from Pfizer, Moderna, SK Bioscience, Shionogi, Merck, Afrigen and Biovac.

"One-third of the world's population remains unvaccinated, including two-thirds of health workers and three-quarters of older people in low-income countries," Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday. "This vaccination gap imperils the global recovery and puts us all at risk. The danger of new, more dangerous and deadly variants emerging is very real."

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivers a speech online during the opening ceremony of the World Bio Summit 2022, Tuesday. Courtesy of Ministry of Health and Welfare

The WHO chief said that the manufacturing capacity for vaccines is "too concentrated in too few countries" and expanding local production and strengthening local regulatory capacity are essential for reducing health inequity between countries.

On its second day, Korean Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong is set to celebrate the gathering of the event participants. A major outcome of the summit is the pronouncement of the Seoul Declaration, which calls for global cooperation in tracking viruses and ending the pandemic, empowering the workforce in the bio industry, R&D and distribution of vaccines, treatments and diagnosis tools and deregulation to spur prompt market deployment following medical certification.

In a speech to be delivered on Wednesday, Minister Cho will affirm Seoul's role in the global efforts for preventing and fighting the pandemic, mentioning the country's "K-Global Vaccine Hub" established in 2021. He also will stress Korea's selection by the WHO in February to serve as a global biomanufacturing training hub, "thanks to Korean government's firm resolve and extensive biopharmaceutical production capacity, the world's second-largest."

National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo said at the summit that the world has enabled vaccination rates to reach at least 80 percent in more than 40 countries and 1.2 billion vaccine doses have been supplied to 144 nations via COVAX facilities ― but the specter of conflict and inequality looms over the supply of vaccines and medicines.

"We can be sure of one thing: viruses such as COVID-19 can reemerge at any time," he said. "Humanity must prepare from now on to deal effectively with the next outbreak of infectious disease, taking lessons from the current COVID-19 experience."

Ban Ki-moon, former U.N. secretary-general and current chairman of the Ban Ki-moon Foundation For a Better Future, delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the World Bio Summit 2022, Tuesday. Courtesy of Ministry of Health and Welfare

From spotting virus to vaccination

Battling COVID-19 has unraveled many challenges for global humanity, from equipping unprepared countries with necessary infrastructures and financing to developing and distributing vaccines more effectively, and introducing more diagnosis tools to prevent an out-of-control contagious crisis.

One of the six panels during the summit is set to discuss overcoming inequality in vaccine availability around the globe, the most critical solution of which is for developing and low-income countries to learn how to produce vaccines self-reliantly instead of relying on advanced countries with vaccines or technologies to produce them. The silver lining reflects how the WHO in June 2021 designated South Africa as the mRNA Technology Transfer Hub, 15 countries as its recipients and South Korea as a global bio manpower nurturing hub.

Charlotte Watts, chief scientific adviser at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office in the United Kingdom, will lead a discussion into ways for countries to invest in R&D for vaccines and treatments at the global level.

The importance of global ties and joint cooperation in fighting a pandemic and how to prepare those safety nets will be discussed in a panel led by CEPI CEO Hatchett. Fumie Griego, CEO of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, is set to host a discussion on the stabilized distribution of key materials, parts and equipment in vaccine R&D.

The significance of having diagnostic tools to fight pandemics preemptively is another major topic for the summit. Hui Yang, head of supply operations at the Global Fund, an international financing organization, will preside over a panel discussion on the topic. Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for drug access, vaccines and pharmaceuticals, is set to invite experts to talk about the need for deregulation on the national and international levels to secure global alliances in preparing for future pandemics.