The World Health Organization says it’s opening a global biomanufacturing hub in South Korea to train people in low- and middle-income countries to produce vaccines and therapeutics used to fight COVID-19. The WHO also said Wednesday it will transfer technology from its South African mRNA vaccine hub to five more countries: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Serbia and Vietnam. The WHO has produced a prototype COVID vaccine based on technology reverse-engineered from Moderna’s mRNA shot, but the vaccine could still take more than a year to test and develop. Top WHO scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said Wednesday that Moderna and Pfizer could help rapidly speed up the process by sharing their patented technologies with the world.

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan: “We would very much welcome a partnership with them, because, as we were describing, you know, the development from scratch of a vaccine does take time, … which means that it’s not going to be really available as a vaccine that — before the end of 2023, or more likely 2024. This can be — this timeline can obviously be shortened considerably if a known technology, a known vaccine, with proven efficacy and safety, were to transfer their know-how.”