28 July 2020
Published in the Hankyoreh.
S. Korean biotech firms commit major investments into global vaccine research
After Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates mentioned the possibility of developing a COVID-19 vaccine with South Korean companies next year, South Korean biotech firms have been getting attention for putting their top-shelf medical technology to work developing vaccines for needy people around the world.
The Research Investment for Global Health Technology (RIGHT) Fund, a nonprofit private-public partnership that funds R&D on infectious diseases in developing countries, told the Hankyoreh about these projects over the phone on July 27.
“Our understanding is that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in recognition of Korean biotech firms’ capabilities and their potential to contribute to global public health, recently got in touch with the South Korean government to propose expanding the RIGHT Fund. We’d been planning to run twice as many research programs in 2023 as we do right now, but with more funding coming in, it should be possible to accelerate project expansion,” a RIGHT Fund spokesperson said.