Two scientists have been awarded the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Award for Global Health for their outstanding contributions to the development of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines against COVID-19.
The WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, presented the award to Professor Katalin Kariko and Professor Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania at the opening of the annual World Health Assembly.
The Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, was also awarded for her leadership in climate action and health and her work as the chair of the Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance.
“Professors Karikó and Weissman played a key role in alleviating the burden of COVID-19, and saved lives during the pandemic.
“Their leadership in this field has the potential to play a critical role in improving health worldwide,” the WHO director-general said.
The professors discovered a novel nucleoside-modified mRNA platform that bypasses adverse immunologic response.
Both scientists are winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023.
The Nobel Prize panel at that time said that their discovery fundamentally changed understanding of how mRNA interacted with the immune system.
