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BTEC featured at WHO-sponsored South Africa workshop

Published Dec 2, 2011

BTEC Director Ruben Carbonell and Associate Director Bill Welsh are participating in the Workshop on Enhancing the Global Workforce for Vaccine Manufacturing (WEGWVM), being held Nov. 30-Dec. 2, 2011, in Cape Town, South Africa. The workshop is sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Dr. Carbonell is a featured speaker at the workshop, presenting on BTEC’s training program for international influenza vaccine manufacturers. This training program is sponsored by the Biomedical Advanced Research & Development Authority (BARDA), a unit within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, part of HHS.

BTEC received almost $900,000 in September 2010 for the first year of this five-year, nearly $5 million project, which is part of the BARDA/WHO/PATH international vaccine capacity-building program. Those funds were used to design, develop and deliver a three-week hands-on training course, called the Fundamentals of cGMP Influenza Vaccine Manufacturing. Earlier this year, 35 trainees from 10 different countries participated in one of three different offerings of the course at BTEC.

BTEC recently received an additional $950,000 award for the second year of the training program, which will expand to include advanced courses in upstream and downstream processes for influenza vaccine manufacturing. Dr. Jennifer Ruiz, senior bioprocessing scientist, is the training program manager. For additional information about the BTEC training program, contact her at 919-515-0215 or jennifer_pancorbo@ncsu.edu. For more information about the WEGWVM workshop, visit http://www.who.int/phi/vaccines_workforce_Dec2011/en/index.html.