WHO Expands Vaccine Program to Sidestep Big Pharma Patents (1)

The World Health Organization is expanding its messenger RNA vaccine hub program that bypasses major pharmaceutical producers.

The United Nations organization said Wednesday it will open a new facility in South Korea to provide training to workers from low and middle-income countries to produce mRNA vaccines, treatments and other medicines.

The WHO also said it will provide technology from its South African mRNA vaccine hub to five more countries -- Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Serbia and Vietnam -- in a bid to give them a jump-start on manufacturing the life-saving vaccines.

The initiatives are the latest moves by the WHO to ...