Marking its 28th anniversary, the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) Korea Support Group expressed its continued commitment to combating global infectious diseases through vaccines and expanding the health rights of children around the world.
On the 28th anniversary, Chair Lee Byung-geon of the IVI Korea Support Group said, "The journey of the past 28 years has been a time when every step carried the warm hearts of our supporters," and added, "I am deeply grateful to everyone who joined with one heart to give a healthy tomorrow to children in distant countries where vaccines do not reach."
The IVI Korea Support Group was launched in 1998 to support the International Vaccine Institute, which established its headquarters in Seoul as Korea's first international organization headquarters. Over the past 28 years, together with domestic and overseas supporters, it has backed vaccine development and global distribution initiatives.
Lee cited IVI's development and commercialization of the world's first affordable oral cholera vaccine as a representative achievement.
Lee explained, "UBIChol, a cholera vaccine for which technology was transferred to domestic vaccine corporations and is now in production, has been supplied through the United Nations (UN) to more than 50 countries in over 250 million doses, protecting countless lives."
Lee added, "In addition to cholera, IVI is continuously pursuing vaccine development for major infectious diseases that threaten global health, including typhoid, dysentery, salmonella, and severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS)."
As health threats grow amid climate change and the spread of emerging infectious diseases, the role of vaccines was emphasized again.
Lee said, "The value of prevention through vaccines is greater and more important today than ever," adding, "The IVI Korea Support Group will continue to press forward so that not a single child loses their life to a preventable disease."
Lee also expressed gratitude to Senior Advisor Cho Wan-kyu, who led IVI's founding and growth, and to Secretary General Jerome Kim, who is elevating IVI's international standing.
Meanwhile, Lee Byung-geon is a representative leader in Korea's pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Lee also serves as special advisor for Korea at Flagship Pioneering, the global biotech investment firm that founded the U.S. corporation Moderna, which developed a COVID-19 vaccine; as a Commissioner of the National Advanced Strategic Industries Committee and the Biohealth Innovation Committee; and as a special advisor to Aribio. Lee previously served as vice chairman of Chong Kun Dang pharmaceutical, CEO of GC Biopharma, chairman and CEO of GI Innovation, and chairman of the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization.