[Pangyo Bio & Medical] SK Bioscience to Create a Nobel Prize in the Vaccine Industry

    LOS ANGELES, CA, December 09, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ -- SK Bioscience would create a Nobel Prize for vaccine which would be awarded to people and organizations that make groundbreaking contributions the global vaccine industry every year along with an international organization.

SK Bioscience announced on the 30th that it held a signing ceremony to run a "Park Man-Hoon Prize" which would be awarded to people and organizations at home and abroad that made a contribution to the development of vaccine industry along with International Vaccine Institute. The prize is named after late Park Man-Hoon former vice president who was a pioneer of domestic cell-based vaccine to honor his achievements on research and development.

Both organizations decided to form the examination group with fewer than eight professional judges including director general of the International Vaccine Research Institute in order to award the Park Man-Hoon prize as the most prestigious award on a regular basis. It is planning to evaluate nominees and award the prize by receiving recommendations of individuals or organizations that made a significant contribution to the industry once a year.

SK Bioscience would make a donation of 200 million won every year and the first prize would be awarded on April 25th next year, the first anniversary of late vice president Park Man-Hoon's death. Jerome Kim director general of the International Vaccine Research Institute, Lee Mi-Hae wife of the deceased, Ahn Jae-Yong president of SK Bioscience payed their respects in the signing ceremony and decided to continuously work together in order to help talented people see results.

In September, SK Bioscience and the bereaved family of late Park Man-Hoon donated "Park Man-Hoon fellowship fund" to the deceased's alma maters Seoul National University Department of Biological Sciences and Boseong High School and said that they would foster talent who would lead the bio industry in South Korea.

Jerome Kim director general of the International Vaccine Research Institute said, "late Park Man-Hoon was a pioneer of the vaccine industry who made a significant contribution to global health who led the development of innovative vaccines such as typhoid vaccine along with the International Vaccine Research Institute. The International Vaccine Research Institute would remember his legacy and foster a leader in the vaccine industry through collaboration with SK Bioscience and develop Park Man-Hoon Prize into the most prestigious award in the world in the vaccination field in order to promote the development of vaccines for global health.

SK Bioscience president Ahn JaeYong said, "I hope enthusiasm and wishes of late vice president Park who made groundbreaking contributions to Korea's vaccine research 's would be passed down to talent around the world who would contribute to the vaccine industry. We would work together to make the Park Man-Hoon Prize develop into an honorable and authoritative award in the vaccine development field."

Moreover, late Park Man-Hoon is evaluated as being successful in leading a vaccine project and research and development of SK Bioscience boosting the domestic vaccine R&D capabilities to the global standards. Good examples are Joint development of next-generation pneumonia vaccine with Sanofi Pasteur and development cooperation of typhoid vaccine with The International Vaccine Research Institute and Bill & Mullida Gates Foundation.

One of the deceased's achievements is being at the forefront of securing vaccine sovereignty in Korea through quick and safe development and localization of vaccines based on cell culture techniques.

Development of the world's first cell culture Trivalent flu vaccine in 2015, development of pneumococcal vaccine in 2016 and development of the world's second shingles vaccine in 2017 are considered his masterpieces.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, SK Bioscience's core technology behind consignment and manufacturing of covid-19 vaccine is also known to be cell culture techniques created by the late vice president.

Pangyo Technovalley is an innovation hub for global companies comparable to the Silicon Valley in the US, Zhongguancun in China, and STATION F in France. It is an Asia tech hub with 1,259 IT, BT, CT, and NT companies that possess innovative products and technologies. Located just south of the metropolitan area, it provides the best environment for Korean companies to do business with great transportation access and infrastructure.

Various high-tech companies are located in Pangyo Technovalley, and it is occupied by 64,000 full-time employees, many in their 20-30s. In terms of industry, the companies are engaged in information technology, contents technology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology.

With the support of innovative companies with global capabilities such as Kakao, Naver, AhnLab, Krafton, NCSoft, Nexon, and Hancom, companies in Pangyo Technovalley recorded 107 trillion won in sales last year. Investment and infrastructure growth in Pangyo is expected to continue, with the Metaverse hub entering Pangyo this year.

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