[단독] Bill Gates “Thank you, LG Chem”… Polio vaccine thank you letter

“Thank you for being able to protect the health of children around the world with LG Chem’s four polio vaccine,’Eupolio’.”

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, sent a thank-you letter to Shin Hak-cheol, vice chairman of LG Chem. Congratulations on the success of the polio vaccine development, as well as gratitude for solving the children’s public health problem. A dead vaccine is a vaccine that has undergone an additional process of chemically eliminating the pathogenicity of the virus using an attenuated virus (a virus with weakened toxicity), and has higher safety than the existing live vaccine (a vaccine using a virus with weak toxicity).

The letter sent by Chairman Bill Gates was announced through LG Chem’s in-house digital newsletter.

Bill Gates, Chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has provided a total of $576,000 (approximately 63 billion won) of funding for the Ufolio and Ufolio-based 6-valent vaccine projects since 2017, looking at LG Chem’s vaccine development capabilities. It wasn’t just support for money. It is reported that he has not spared all-round support, such as connecting expert groups around the world for the success of vaccine development.

Co-Chairman Bill Gates said to Vice Chairman Shin, “We deeply appreciate our commitment to our common goal of solving polio disease and our efforts to provide a polio vaccine to people in need around the world.” “It will play a key role in eradicating polio infection as an important technology that can expand supply to 185 million doses.” Bill Gates also said, “The Ufolio, which has been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), is a very important milestone not only in solving global children’s public health issues, but also in the partnership between LG Chem and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We look forward to continuing the same development as this polio vaccine.”

Vice Chairman Shin Hak-cheol said in a reply letter, “This achievement was possible thanks to the support and cooperation of the Bill & Melinda Foundation.” “LG Chem’s vision of solving polio disease around the world is’connecting science to human life for a better future’. “We look forward to continuing to cooperate with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop vaccines against other diseases,” he said.

LG Chem received PQ (Pre-Qualification) approval from the WHO at the end of December last year, which is the first in the world to supply vaccines to international aid organizations as a’Sabin IPV’.

By signing a supply contract worth 80 million dollars (about 87 billion won) with UNICEF, it will supply more than 20% of the total supply of UNICEF. It will be supplied to over 70 countries around the world starting next month.

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