The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated a global network of regional biomanufacturing training centres across all six WHO regions to address critical workforce gaps and strengthen local production of vaccines and biotherapeutics. This marks a key step in shifting from infrastructure-led expansion to capability-driven health system resilience.
The initiative builds on the WHO Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Initiative (2023), recognising that limited technical and regulatory expertise remains a major constraint to scaling local manufacturing. The newly designated centres, including India’s Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) for the South-East Asia region, will deliver hands-on, region-specific training across the full value chain, from upstream and downstream bioprocessing to regulatory compliance.
These centres will operate in coordination with the Global Training Hub for Biomanufacturing (GTH-B) in the Republic of Korea, which provides standardised curricula and “training-of-trainers” support. The model aims to combine global standards with local adaptation, ensuring that countries can build self-sustaining manufacturing ecosystems.
The initiative operationalises World Health Assembly resolution WHA74.6, which calls for geographically diversified production of health technologies. By strengthening workforce capacity, the network seeks to reduce dependence on a few global suppliers and enable faster, more equitable responses to future health emergencies.
Key Strategic and Institutional Benchmarks
Global Reach: Regional centers established in all six WHO regions (Africa, Americas, South-East Asia, Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, Western Pacific).
Selected India Hub: Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) designated for the South-East Asia Region.
Value Chain Scope: Training covers R&D interfaces, upstream/downstream bioprocessing, CMC, and clinical scale-up.
Regulatory Focus: Emphasis on Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and regulatory science to ensure quality-assured production.
Collaborative Model: Centers will partner with academia and industry to foster regional expertise and cross-country collaboration.
Sustainability Goal: Transitioning global health systems from crisis response to long-term resilience through local workforce empowerment.
What is "Biomanufacturing Workforce Training"?
Biomanufacturing workforce training involves equipping professionals with the highly specialized technical and regulatory skills needed to produce biological products like vaccines, insulin, or monoclonal antibodies.
Unlike traditional medicine manufacturing, which relies on chemical synthesis, biomanufacturing uses living systems (like cells or bacteria). This requires precise control over upstream bioprocessing (growing the cells) and downstream bioprocessing (purifying the product). The WHO Initiative ensures that local experts are not just technicians, but masters of regulatory science and quality management, enabling them to produce world-class health products that meet international safety standards independently.
Policy Relevance
Cementing India's Role as the 'Pharmacy of the World': The designation of THSTI as a regional hub reinforces India's leadership in biomanufacturing and positions it as a critical provider of technical expertise for the South-East Asia Region.
Advancing 'Atmanirbhar' in Biologics: Building a skilled workforce locally aligns with national goals for self-reliance in healthcare, moving India beyond simple generics into complex, high-value biotherapeutics.
Securing Regional Health Equity: As a training hub, India will play a pivotal role in enabling neighboring countries to develop their own production capacity, fostering a diversified and resilient regional supply chain.
Attracting Global Technology Transfer: A certified, WHO-recognized workforce makes India a more attractive destination for international technology transfers, as global partners are more likely to share advanced manufacturing processes with a workforce trained to WHO standards.
Strengthening Pandemic Preparedness: Training in clinical development and production scale-up ensures that the regional workforce can pivot rapidly to produce new vaccines or treatments during future health emergencies.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: How can India design sustainable financing and training models to expand biomanufacturing workforce capacity across South-East Asia through the THSTI hub?
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