Ivana Knezevic MD, MSc, PhD

Dr Ivana Knezevic is a Specialist in Medical Microbiology and Parasitology. She received her MD from the University of Novi Sad, MSc in Medicine (Microbiology), and PhD in Medicine (Virology) from the University of Belgrade, Serbia.

Dr Ivana Knezevic has 22 years of professional experience in standardization, scientific, and regulatory overview of biologicals. During the first seven years, the expertise in the production, quality control, and overall evaluation of vaccines and biological therapeutics was developed at the national level. Following the WHO Global Training Network on potency testing of live attenuated oral polio vaccines at the National Institute of Biological Standardization and Control (NIBSC) in the UK in 1996, she established a virology laboratory for quality control of viral vaccines and interferons at the National Control Laboratory and the National Regulatory Authority in Serbia.

Dr Knezevic is a Scientist at the WHO Biological Standardization Programme, which she joined in September 2000, and since then her activities have been devoted to the standardization and evaluation of biologicals at the global level. Since 2006, she has been leading the team for standardization of vaccines and some biological therapeutics which consists of five scientists and three support staff in the WHO Headquarters. The main aspects of the work include the development and establishment of WHO International Standards as well as providing assistance to the regulators, manufacturers, and other users of these standards. Being responsible for the development and implementation of more than 30 guidelines and recommendations to assure the quality, safety, and efficacy of vaccines and biotherapeutic products, Dr Knezevic has established a valuable set of scientific principles for regulatory oversight of biologicals. Among them, the development of the WHO regulatory guidelines on various aspects of vaccine evaluation, i.e. cell substrates, stability, non-clinical and clinical, as well as the recommendations for production, control, and evaluation of selected vaccines, e.g. polio, rabies, pertussis, pneumococcal, dengue, yellow fever, combined vaccines, published in the WHO Technical Report Series, are some of the most important projects.