The Fund seeks for innovation in vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics to solve the problems in developing countries…a briefing session to be held on Oct. 4th
Seoul, Republic of Korea, 1st Oct. 2018 – the RIGHT Fund (Research Investment for Global Health Technology, Executive Director Younbeen Kim) took its first step towards Global Health Equity releasing its first Request for Proposal (RFP) on 1st Oct., 3 months after its establishment on July through the public-private-partnership between the Korean Government, pharmaceutical companies, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The RIGHT Fund is a non-profit foundation established through the first public-private-partnership between Ministry of Health and Welfare of Korea, 5 pharmaceutical companies(SK Bioscience, LG Chem, Green Cross Pharma, Chongkundang, Genexine) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with the mission to promote global health equity by advancing the discovery and development of new affordable and applicable products to meet the public health needs of the world’s poorest populations. The Fund seeks R&D projects leveraging Korean innovation and technology for development of new vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics as solutions for global health problems in developing countries, and it will invest 50 billion KRW(approx. 45 million USD) over the next 5 years for the mission.
The RIGHT Fund will focus its investment on known strength of Korean industry, such as development of new formulation and manufacturing, in order to bring rapid and substantial impact to the lives of the people who suffer from infectious diseases in low-resourced countries. The Fund is planning to release at least 1 RFP per year to select and invest on relevant projects. Information on target diseases, eligible interventions and stages for the 1st round of RFP can be found on the RIGHT Fund’s website (https://rightfoundation.kr)
In order to apply for the funding in the first round of RFP, the applicants should submit their Intent To Apply, and the eligible applicants will receive the template for full proposal after the eligibility check. After submission of the full proposal, the RIGHT Fund will perform a 2-tiered peer review and announce its first successful awardees on the first semester of 2019. On this matter, the Fund will host a briefing session at Hoam Faculty House in Seoul National University on 4th October, 2PM KST.
Younbeen Kim, Executive Director of the RIGHT Fund, emphasized that “Korea has shown brilliant advancement and innovation in R&D and technology development in public health field during the last 10 years, and the nation is well known among global community for its strength in development and manufacturing of vaccines, diagnostics and biopharmaceuticals”, and further elaborated that “the RIGHT Fund seeks to make practical investments on R&D projects to deliver tangible global health solutions by leveraging the intellectual and technical strengths of Korea, and by promoting partnership between Korean industry, foreign R&D institutes and Product Development Partnerships(PDPs).”