Biologics experts and industry officials will discuss accessibility of COVID-19 vaccines at the virtual Global Bio Conference 2020 starting Monday.

According to the hosting Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, this year’s GBC is the sixth annual event and the first to open online.

The Ministry anticipates participation from some 3,000 audience for the live broadcasts to be delivered by 61 speakers from 18 nations over three days. The number of speakers and partaking countries halved from the year before.

Topics of the conference will pertain to the most pertinent matters such as the ongoing global efforts to develop a vaccine to alleviate the pandemic crisis and each country’s regulations for next-generation biologics drug developments.

There will be discussions between biologics experts and regulatory institutions from both Korea and overseas, the Drug Ministry said -- which is timely as the ministry is slated to announce new regulations for biologics drugs Monday morning.

The conference’s open forum will host speakers in on vaccines, genetic recombinant drugs and innovative biologics drugs, while focusing on value creation through people-centered research and development.

Celltrion Chairman Seo Jung-jin will give a special lecture on the new-normal for biologics in the post-COVID-19 era.

Julie Gerberding, MSD’s executive vice president and former head of US’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will speak on pan-global collaboration in response to COVID-19.

Other speakers include Joerg Michael Rupp, head of i7 of Hoffmann-La Roche; Agnes Saint-Raymond, head of international affairs at European Medicines Agency; Robert Joseph Smith, senior vice president at Pfizer; Fouad Atouf, head of biologics science at USP; Liz Henderson, regional vice president for Asia Pacific at Merck’s health care sector; Hardev Pandha, from the University of Surrey; and Kim Seong-jin, CEO of Korean innovative biotech MedPacto.

More details regarding this conference can be found at www.gbckorea.kr

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)