WHO Designates Network of Regional Biomanufacturing Training Centers

The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated a network of regional training centers for biomanufacturing across all six WHO regions, which is intended to mark a major step forward in strengthening the global workforce needed to produce vaccines, biotherapeutics and other biological products.

As global efforts continue to expand manufacturing infrastructure and advance technology transfer, WHO is placing equal emphasis on the people and systems required to make these investments sustainable and impactful.

The designation follows a global selection process conducted through two calls for expressions of interest and forms part of the WHO Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Initiative established in 2023. This flagship effort addresses critical skills gaps across the biomanufacturing value chain, enabling countries to translate technological advances into sustainable local production.

The newly designated regional training centers will operate as part of a coordinated global network, delivering context-specific training aligned with regional priorities, regulatory environments and languages, according to Nakatani. By partnering with academia and industry, they plan to expand access to training, strengthen regional expertise and foster collaboration across countries, supporting the development of a skilled and sustainable workforce. While operating independently, they will work in close collaboration with WHO under agreed frameworks to ensure quality, alignment, and accountability, note WHO officials.

The selected institutions are:

• African Region: Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Senegal; Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa
• Region of the Americas: Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Brazil
• South-East Asia Region: Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, India
• European Region: National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, Ireland
• Eastern Mediterranean Region: Center for Continuing Professional Development, Egyptian Drug Authority, Egypt Western Pacific Region: Peking University, China

These centers will complement the Global Training Hub for Biomanufacturing (GTH-B), established in 2022 in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the Republic of Korea.The Global Hub delivers standardized training programs that combine hands-on experience and classroom-based learning, while also supporting the WHO initiative through training-of-trainers programs.

The WHO Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Initiative was designed to directly support the implementation of World Health Assembly resolution WHA74.6 on strengthening local production of medicines and other health technologies. By investing in workforce development, WHO states that it is helping to address longstanding inequities in access to health products and to ensure that all countries are better equipped to respond rapidly and effectively to future health emergencies.

As global health systems move from crisis response to long-term resilience, building a skilled and geographically distributed biomanufacturing workforce is emerging as a cornerstone of pandemic preparedness and health security, points out a WHO spokesperson.

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