Operation of Korea's First Plant-Based Vaccine Production Facility for Animals... "Response to Emerging Infectious Diseases"

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kim Hyewon] The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on the 15th that it will establish the 'Green Vaccine Demonstration Support Center' in the Pohang Convergence Technology Industrial Complex area in Gyeongbuk and begin operations from March to support companies related to the production of the country's first plant-based animal vaccine (Green Vaccine).

Plant vaccines are a technology that produces vaccines based on plants or plant cells. Compared to traditional vaccine production methods using fertilized eggs or animal cell cultures, they have the advantages of being faster, safer, and more economical. In 2014, this technology was selected as a promising core technology for the future by organizations such as the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Planning and Evaluation.

Globally, research is actively underway using plant vaccine technology to produce vaccines for infectious disease response, treatments for companion animals, therapies for rare human diseases, as well as high-value cosmetics and growth factor proteins used in stem cell cultures.

Considering this environment, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs established a plan to build the Green Vaccine Demonstration Support Center and selected Pohang City in Gyeongbuk as the project operator through a local government competition. The Green Vaccine Demonstration Support Center was constructed with a total project cost of 17.7 billion KRW (6 billion KRW national funds and 11.7 billion KRW local funds) and has a total floor area of 4,695㎡. It is equipped with animal vaccine production facilities (KvGMP) for producing animal vaccines using plants, plant factories, and animal efficacy evaluation facilities.

The completion ceremony will be held on the 16th. Pohang City plans to sign a 'Mutual Business Agreement for Fostering the Green Bio New Industry' between Pohang Technopark and companies residing in the Green Vaccine Demonstration Support Center.

An Hyung-geun, Director of the Seed and Life Industry Division at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said, "Based on the Green Vaccine Demonstration Support Center, we expect to actively develop plant-based animal vaccines and establish an environment that can quickly respond to new and mutated infectious diseases that may occur in the future."

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