Global health experts emphasized the importance of derisking and incentivizing R&D for ensuring effective delivery and access to vaccines and diagnostics at the RIGHT Foundation’s fifth-anniversary forum in Seoul on Friday.
The anniversary was commemorated with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) to pursue a joint fund for research in diagnostics as well as share FIND’s technology and know-how with Korean diagnostic companies.
FIND is a non-profit global alliance for diagnostics based in Geneva, Switzerland.
In particular, Dr. Jessica Martinez, Senior Program Officer of Industry Engagement and Sustainable Access at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), acknowledged the RIGHT Foundation’s leading role in ensuring that R&D strategies are developed with robust access plans.
“No one really seeks to make large profits from global health but we still need to ensure these products can be sustainable,” she said, welcoming the doubled contributions from the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) to the RIGHT Foundation for its second five-year stint. “We believe that Korea can play an important role together in maximizing the untapped potential of the ASEAN region.”
MOHW Vice Minister Park Min-Soo said the Korean government will play a role befitting its national character in the global civil society to support innovative vaccine research and rapid diagnostic technologies through the foundation.
