January 13, 2020 - SEOUL, South Korea - The International Vaccine Institute (IVI), a Seoul, Korea-based international organization, announced today that the Swedish International Cooperation Agency (Sida) will continue to support IVI's mission to accelerate vaccine research and development for global health with a total contribution of SEK 50 million (approximately 5.24 million USD) over the next five years as part of a longstanding partnership between the Swedish government and IVI.
"We're proud to have Sweden's long-term support and partnership. Unrestricted support from Sida enables IVI to implement strategic imperatives and pursue independent research and innovation. We're very grateful for the latitude to advance both our scientific portfolio and core activities.
"Our partnership has made possible significant accomplishments in the past, including the development and delivery of the world's first affordable oral cholera vaccine. We're looking forward to further collaboration in achieving global goals," said Dr. Jerome Kim, Director General of IVI.
Sweden was one of the first countries to sign the IVI Establishment Agreement in 1997 and started funding IVI in 2002 through Sida. Since IVI's first research collaboration with the University of Gothenburg and Swedish Biological Laboratories in 2000, Sweden has played an invaluable role in developing IVI's landmark oral cholera vaccine (OCV), Shanchol, and later, Euvichol and Euvichol Plus, vaccines developed through technology transfer from IVI and prequalified by the WHO. To date, over 42 million doses of these low-cost OCVs have been deployed worldwide.
"IVI's contribution to global health is invaluable considering both the technical support provided to low- and middle-income countries and the focus on diseases disproportionally affecting people living in poverty," said Dr Teresa Soop, Senior research advisor at Sida.
In addition to funding for IVI operations, Sida has previously granted additional project funding for IVI's priority disease areas: cholera, dengue, and typhoid. These funds have supported a range of epidemiology and vaccine programs, including generating evidence on disease burden across developing Asian and African countries; accelerating the development and introduction of affordable dengue, oral cholera, and typhoid vaccines across Asia and South America; and increasing the capacity of developing countries to implement immunization programs in Central Asia.
Sida's contribution to IVI extends beyond providing core funding and governance, to impacting operations and culture, particularly in the areas of sustainability and gender equality. With Sida's guidance, IVI initiated an Environmental Impact Assessment in 2018 which resulted in the formation of an internal Environmental Management System committee to oversee IVI's environmental impacts and champion sustainable development. IVI has also initiated efforts to further cultivate diversity and inclusion in personnel policies and leadership. These are two examples of how IVI benefits from and reciprocates partnership with its member states.
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About the International Vaccine Institute (IVI)
The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) is a nonprofit inter-governmental organization established in 1997 at the initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, IVI was the first international organization hosted by Korea. IVI has 35 signatory countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) on its treaty, including Korea, Sweden and India as state funders. Our mandate is to make vaccines available and accessible for the world's most vulnerable people. We focus on infectious diseases of global health importance such as cholera, typhoid, shigella, salmonella, schistosomiasis, Group A Strep, Hepatitis A, HPV, TB, HIV, MERS-Corona Virus, as well as antimicrobial resistance. For more information, please visit https://www.ivi.int
About the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida, is Sweden's government agency for international development cooperation. We strive to reduce world poverty by allocating resources and knowledge with the goal of making a difference for people in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. To achieve this, we collaborate with actors from civil society and universities as well as the public and private sector. Sida's activities are funded through Swedish tax revenue.