Update on COVID-19 Vaccines

We are incredibly lucky to have a resident expert on vaccines as a member of our club! Dr. Liliana Chocarro has spent the last year working with the World Health Organization (WHO) on assessment of COVID-19 vaccines globally. Please join us as Liliana gives us an update on this important work.

Liliana Chocarro was born in Argentina, where she studied biochemistry and worked for the National Control Laboratory for Biological Products since her first year of university, becoming the Head of the Division of Viral Vaccines.

After moving to Canada in 1990, she worked for Connaught Labs (now Sanofi-Pasteur) until 1995 and then started her own consulting business. In 1997 she began consulting to biotech companies in Canada and their partners in Latin America, and for the World Health Organization in the prequalification of vaccines.

From 2004 to 2010 Liliana worked for the World Health Organization (WHO) at the Headquarters in Geneva, where she was responsible for strengthening regulatory authorities in developing countries. She created regulatory cooperation platforms like the Developing Country Vaccine Regulators Network (DCVRN) and AVAREF (African Vaccine Regulatory Forum), developed training programs, supported authorities in the development of legal frameworks for the regulation of clinical trials, and created novel strategies for assessment of submissions for approvals of clinical trials.

Liliana returned to Canada in October 2010 and continued working as a consultant to WHO, as well as Health Canada, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, International Vaccine Institute and other international organizations involved in global health.

She became a member of the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar in May 2019.