Hong Kong’s plan to be hub for vaccines to combat emerging infectious diseases takes big step forward with two new labs to open next year
- UN’s International Vaccine Institute and Cambridge University will set up labs at University of Hong Kong as part of new Global Health Institute
- New institute expected to be up and running by second quarter of next year to carry out research with international and mainland Chinese scientists
The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) under the United Nations and the University of Cambridge in Britain were expected to set up laboratories at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) as part of the establishment of the Global Health Institute (GHI), a source said.
The new initiative was revealed after the chief executive’s pledge in his policy address last month to transform the city into a regional innovation and biomedical hub.
The GHI will carry out vaccine research in collaboration with international and mainland Chinese scientists after identification of the types of infectious diseases likely to emerge.
“The institute will focus more on the downstream supply chain … it is not practical for the city to spend more than 10 years to develop a new vaccine,” the insider said.
“On top of the local experts, top scientists will be recruited to transform vaccines with the latest translational vaccine technology so that they can be produced in a faster and cheaper way.”
