Gyeongbuk Province Opens Green Vaccine Demonstration Support Center in Pohang... Supporting 'Plant Vaccine' Venture Companies

Completion in June Next Year... Equipped with Enclosed Plant Cultivation Facility, Vaccine Production Facility, and Efficacy Evaluation Facility

Aerial view of the Green Vaccine Demonstration Support Center.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongwook Park] Gyeongsangbuk-do will hold a groundbreaking ceremony on the 13th at the Pohang Convergence Technology Industrial Complex for the 'Green Vaccine Demonstration Support Center,' the first of its kind to be established in Korea.

The Green Vaccine Demonstration Support Center, selected in 2018 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs' 'Plant Vaccine Enterprise Support Facility Construction' public contest, is a support facility for small and medium-sized pharmaceutical venture companies using plant cells and plants, a first attempt in the public sector. Gyeongbuk Province plans to invest a total project cost of 16.5 billion KRW (6 billion KRW national funds, 10.5 billion KRW local funds) over three years and complete construction by June next year.

The Green Vaccine Demonstration Support Center to be established in the Pohang Convergence Technology Industrial Complex will build ▲a fully enclosed plant cultivation facility ▲vaccine production facilities meeting excellent veterinary drug manufacturing standards (KvGMP) ▲non-clinical efficacy evaluation facilities ▲enterprise support facilities, and will support plant-based biopharmaceutical small and medium-sized venture companies.

Plant vaccines refer to vaccines produced through genetic recombination of specific pathogens using plant cells or plants. Unlike conventional vaccines, they do not use viruses directly, eliminating the risk of pathogen transmission, and can be mass-produced through plant cultivation, allowing rapid response to disease outbreaks.

Currently, plant-based pharmaceutical development is actively underway in the United States, Japan, Canada, Europe, and other regions. Representative cases include Gaucher disease (2012, USA) and ZMapp, an Ebola virus treatment developed in Africa (2014, USA). Additionally, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine development using plants is being pursued worldwide.

Gyeongbuk Province has continuously strived to create an industrial ecosystem in the plant vaccine field by signing a business agreement with industry-academic-research institutions for the development of the Green Vaccine and Green Bio industries in February 2018 and hosting international symposiums.

Recently, the government finalized a plan to foster new convergence industries in green bio to create an ecosystem for five promising green bio industries. The establishment of plant vaccine enterprise support facilities is included in the animal drug industry sector, which is expected to boost the development of regionally specialized industries, according to Gyeongbuk Province's expectations.

Jang Sang-gil, Director of the Science and Industry Bureau of Gyeongsangbuk-do, said, "The plant vaccine field is a newly attempted area in the bioindustry sector combining agriculture and biotechnology," adding, "Through the establishment of Korea's first Green Vaccine Demonstration Support Center, we will foster new green bio industries and actively support the growth of related companies and job creation so that the region can grow into a nationally representative plant vaccine specialized area."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.