Dr. Youngmee Jee, CEO of Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK), suggested policies to secure Korea’s global competitiveness and strengthen the infectious disease R&D capabilities at the “136th KISTEP (Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning) Wednesday Forum”. The forum took place on July 14th on the topic of “Current State of Infectious Disease R&D and Global Competitiveness”. 

Dr. Jee emphasized that Korea should reinforce ▲ cross-ministerial cooperation, ▲ global network participation, ▲ public-private cooperation, and ▲ clinical research support for vaccine and therapeutics development to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future infectious disease X.
 

Watch the 136th KISTEP Wednesday Forum >>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsgPlxT0pts

Information & presentation materials: https://www.kistep.re.kr/board.es?mid=a10202010500&bid=0033&act=view&list_no=42222
 

Stressing the importance of cross-ministerial cooperation in infectious disease R&D, Dr. Jee said that Korea has significantly advanced its ability to respond to emerging infectious diseases through cross-ministerial and field-oriented R&D under the banner of the 2nd National Research Strategy for Crisis Response to Infectious Diseases, following the MERS outbreak in 2015. Meanwhile, she pointed out the difficulties in effective monitoring and performance management of R&D due to the separation of current infectious disease research of Korea: basic research, overseen by the Ministry of Science & ICT, and commercialization and practical use, led by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Thus, Dr. Jee advised cross-ministerial efforts to translate the results of basic research in infectious disease to commercialization and reflect them in policies. In this line, she suggested establishing and operating a joint R&D project platform that shares the status and information on the R&D project of each ministry in real-time, which will be helpful for project planning and management.
 

As global cooperation has been further strengthened during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Jee said that domestic infectious disease experts should participate more actively in international networks. She argued that national strategy and support are needed to help domestic experts communicate and actively engage in major networks such as WHO, GLoPID-R, and CEPI. She expected Korea to enhance its global influence in the field of infectious disease through these activities. Additionally, she suggested that overseas flagship research centers should be established in different regions including Asia, Africa, and South America to expand the infectious disease research base, and said that IPK would also contribute to the expansion of Korea's infectious disease network by utilizing the Institut Pasteur International Network (IPIN) located in 25 countries on five continents.
 

Dr. Jee also insisted on the importance of fostering infectious disease experts and promoting the cooperation of various experts in broad fields. She explained that it is necessary to nurture experts in those fields identified to be needed from the analysis of current research capabilities, such as clinical research and bioinformatics, and train experts with competitiveness suitable for global networking. Taking the case of Peter Doherty Institute in Australia where universities, hospitals, and research institutes cooperate closely, she said that active exchange among experts in various fields of basic, applied, and clinical research is essential to accelerate R&D. Additionally, she suggested establishing a consortium between similar research institutes in different regions would create synergies.

 

Moreover, Dr. Jee urged to strengthen the national strategy for clinical research, which is a critical phase of the vaccines and therapeutics development. By taking the COVID-19 situation as an opportunity to establish a data-sharing platform for preclinical and clinical research and reorganize the drug licensing system, she said that Korea would be better prepared for infectious disease X to come in the future.