Ms Glaudina Loots

(South Africa, Vice-Chair)

Ms Glaudina Loots is the Director for Health Innovation at the Department of Science and Innovation in South Africa and as such is responsible for the implementation of the health components of the Bioeconomy strategy for South Africa. She concentrates on enabling research and innovation that leads to discovery and evaluation of new drug and treatment regimes, the development of new vaccines and new robust diagnostics, as well as the development of medical devices and digital health applications. Glaudina was instrumental in the creation of the Strategic Health Innovation Partnership Initiative (SHIP) at the South African Medical Research Council.

Among others, Ms Loots is a member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Vaccines, the South African National Health Research Committee, the South African National AIDS Council, and the Advisory Board of the “Towards an HIV Cure Initiative” of the International AIDS Society, as well as the steering committee of various research centres of excellence, such as SACEMA; the CAPRISA Centre of Excellence for HIV Prevention and the API Technology Innovation Cluster. She is also an advisory board member of the Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM), and she serves as an alternate Director on the Board of The Biovac Institute, a public-private-partnership aimed at the local manufacturing of vaccines and biologics.