Pangyo, Gyeonggi, 10 Sept, 2015| On 8 Sept, President Park Geun-hye announced that “Korean government will support to reinforce capabilities of infectious disease for 13 countries in Africa, Southeast Asia and South America and will inject $100 million over the next five years from 2016” at the welcome dinner for 2015 High-Level Meeting in Seoul, Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA).
 
Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK, CEO: Dr. Hakim Djaballah) supports President Park Geun-hye and her Government strong commitment to infectious disease research; especially to help 13 countries on 3 continents. IPK pledges to play a strong role in this important mission through its research activities in Korea and the International Network of the Institut Pasteur with 33 research institutes in 27 countries; so IPK has already strong presence in Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America.
 
Dr. Hakim Djaballah, CEO of IPK and the elected representative of the Institut Pasteur Asia Network said “I welcome and support President Park announcement and humbled to hear that she is fully committed to infectious and neglected diseases not only in Korea but in other countries where they are already causing major health and economical issues". He added "Above all, this should be a global effort and I salute President Park for this timely initiative; and very much hope that other leaders from the developed world can also join her pledge with additional financial support enabling research to be conducted without hindrance nor interference".
 
IPK founded in 2004 is a Korea branch institute of Institut Pasteur Paris, which is globally well-known for infectious disease research. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) and Gyeonggi Province have supported research funds. IPK research focus has been on infectious diseases such as Tuberculosis (TB), Leishmania, Super Bacteria, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C; more recently, IPK introduced several new research programs using its own funds and generous support from Insitut Pasteur Paris; these include Dengue, Malaria, Ebola, and MERS CoV. These four programs were also proposed for funding consideration to MSIP.
 
IPK has already demonstrated its high caliber research on tuberculosis by discovering a novel anti-TB drug (Q203) with a novel mechanism of action; a first-in-class compound and the first to be developed in Korea by the spin-off biotech company Qurient Inc. This is an outstanding result for IPK and provides a clear contribution by our institute in the government's Pharma 2020 Vision.