Seoul, Republic of Korea, September 28th, 2020 – The RIGHT Fund (Younbeen Kim, CEO) was introduced as a new R&D funding agency in South Korea to lead innovative technological advances in neglected diseases in the September issue of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, an internationally acclaimed journal published by the Public Library of Science in the U.S.
Founded in July 2018, the RIGHT Fund is a global health research funding agency in Korea through the public-private partnership between the Ministry of Health and Welfare of South Korea, 8 Korean biopharmaceutical companies (SK bioscience, LG Chem, GC Pharma, Chong Kun Dang Pharm, Genexine, Bioneer, EuBiologics, SD BIOSENSOR) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with the mission of promoting global health. The RIGHT Fund selects R&D projects leveraging Korean innovation and technology for the development of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and digital health technologies that can address public health concerns and needs in developing countries.
The manuscript for the headline ‘A New Korean Research Investment for Global Health Technology (RIGHT) Fund to Advance Innovative Neglected Disease Technologies’ , published in PLOS NTD, was co-authored by the Board Members of the RIGHT Fund, headed by Dr. Peter Hotez at Baylor College of Medicine, and Jerome H Kim, the Director General of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI).
“I’m pleased to introduce the RIGHT Fund to PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, an international journal of high repute,” said Chang Jin Moon, Chairman of the Board of Directors of The RIGHT Fund. “The RIGHT Fund intends to lead innovative technological advances to meet the public health needs of the world’s poorest populations, by leveraging the intellectual, technical, and financial resources and leadership of Korea, and by promoting partnership between Korean industry, foreign R&D institutes and Product Development Partnerships.”
“The RIGHT Fund will try to make Korean innovation and technology contribute to improving global health equity by advancing the discovery and development of the R&D projects leveraging known strengths of the life science industry of Korea, such as the development of new formulations, manufacturing, and ICT-enabled diagnostics,” said Younbeen Kim, CEO and Executive Director of The RIGHT Fund.