Luiza Helena Trajano, chairman of the Board of Directors of Magazine Luiza and the Group Women of Brazil, will be honored in South Korea by the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), the only international organization dedicated exclusively to vaccines for global health, and by SK Bioscience, leading biotechnology company in the Asian country, for your contribution to encouraging the immunization of the population. The award ceremony will take place on April 30, at the IVI headquarters, in Seoul
"We established this award in 2022 to honor some individuals who made notable contributions to the development of vaccines or promoted immunization worldwide", explain Jerome Kim, general director of IVI
The IVI-SK Bioscience Park MahnHoon Award of 2025, that honors the legacy of the late vice president of the company, Dr. Park MahnHoon, will be granted to the Belgian professor Pierre Van Damme and the American doctor Ananda Sankar Bandyopadhyay, that led innovations in vaccine research, including the development of a safer oral vaccine against polio; and Luiza Helena Trajano and Svetha Janumpalli, founder and CEO of New Incentives and pioneer of an innovative incentive strategy known as Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) to improve health outcomes in underserved communities in Nigeria
Both Luiza Helena and Janumpalli founded non-profit organizations that significantly increased vaccination rates in Brazil and Nigeria, respectively, through innovative programs
"I am very happy with this tribute and I share this recognition with all the organized civil society that helped me bring vaccines to the most remote corners of Brazil during the covid-19 pandemic". This is proof that when the population organizes, achieves surprising results, affirms Luiza Helena Trajano
