KISTEP held the 136th KISTEP Wednesday Forum on July 14th (Wednesday) to discuss strategies that the government R&D should take to prepare for new and variant infectious diseases. The Wednesday forum was broadcast live online without outside participants to respond to COVID-19, and can be seen again through the KISTEP YouTube channel.

(Link)https://youtu.be/vsgPlxT0pts

Sang-sun Kim, president of KISTEP, stated in his opening speech, "Korea is widely regarded for responding well to the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are some challenges: vaccines,“ and added, “I hope this forum will provide a time to share wisdom on how to respond to the infectious disease with Korea’s a relatively short history and limited resources compared to other leading countries."

▲ Sang-sun Kim (president of KISTEP)

▲ Young-mi Ji (director of Korea Pasteur Research Institute)

Young-mi Ji, director of the Korea Pasteur Research Institute, presented the need to strengthen the competitiveness of infectious diseases R&D and introduced the international and domestic status of infectious diseases R&D. She concluded the presentation by pointing out the challenges we face and presenting policy alternatives from various perspectives.

The panel discussion was conducted by Young-soo Ryu (director at KISTEP) with Man-sung Park (professor at Korea University), Chung-min Ryu (head of the Center for Korea Biotechnology), and Tae-hyung Kim (director of Terrazen Bio).

▲Man-sung Park (professor at Korea University)

He stated that policy makers have come up with infectious disease R&D strategies that distinguish itself between emergencies and normal conditions. Going back to basics, he suggested that we should devise mid- to long-term strategies for the future.

▲ Chung-min Ryu (director at Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB))

He emphasized that The Ministry of Science and Technology of Korea needs to establish a system that can systematically prepare R&D for infectious diseases in a similar concept to defense.

▲ Tae-hyung Kim (executive director at Terrazen Bio)

He stressed, “We need to actively invest in science to solve infectious diseases. Policy makers should devise a system that can quickly announce and disclose genomic data nationwide.”

KISTEP will distribute Wednesday Forum Focus, which includes the main contents and implications of the Wednesday forum, to policy customers. Policy customers and anyone who is interested can subscribe through the email address below.

(Subscribe Wednesday Forum Focus) kch@kistep.re.kr

(Subscribe KISTPETV) https://www.youtube.com/KISTEPTV