In January 2023 the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) and Batavia Biosciences signed a Memorandum of Understanding to “promote cooperation for vaccine development”. The signing ceremony took place at IVI Headquarters in South Korea in the presence of Director General Dr Jerome Kim as well as Deputy Director General of Science, Dr Manki Song, and Batavia’s CEO and COO Dr Menzo Havenga and Dr Chris Yallop.
IVI and Batavia
As Dr Kim told us in our recent interview, IVI is “devoted to the discovery, development, and delivery” of “safe, effective, and affordable vaccines”. Dutch contract development and manufacturing organisation Batavia has “expertise in viral vaccines, virotherapy, proteins, and antibodies”.
“We are not your standard CDMO – our customers regularly refer to us as their product development partner and thought partner”.
MoU
Through this agreement the two organisations “plan to promote joint development of vaccines for global health”. They will use IVI’s “global network” and “extensive experience with low- and middle-income countries in combination with Batavia’s “advanced production and quality control capabilities”.
Dr Havenga suggested that Batavia’s “high cell density, low cost, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technology” will combine well with IVI’s network. The hope is that this will “expedite the development of vaccines and capacity onshoring in low- and middle-income countries”.
Dr Kim hopes that the collaboration will contribute to “improving global public health”.
“This partnership will facilitate efforts of both organisations to accelerate the development of new vaccines and to create sustainable manufacturing capacity in regional vaccine manufacturers globally”.
We will hear more from both Dr Kim and representatives of Batavia at the World Vaccine Congress in Washington in April 2023. To join us there get your tickets today.
