보건복지부 영문홈페이지

Talks Held on Expanding ROK-U.S. Healthcare Cooperation in
Commemoration of the 70^th Anniversary of Bilateral Alliance

Deputy Minister for Healthcare Policy Lim In-Taek meets

with the Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs(April 26)

Cancer research institutes of both countries signed the memorandum of understanding

on strengthening joint cancer research efforts

On Wednesday, April 26(U.S. local time), Lim In-Taek, Deputy Minister for Healthcare Policy of the ROK Ministry of Health and Welfare, visited the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., to meet with Loyce Pace, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs.

In this meeting that was held on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the ROK-U.S. alliance, the importance of global solidarity to cope with global health crisis, as well as the need to explore new areas of healthcare cooperation to further strengthen the close ties between the two countries, were discussed.

The two sides reviewed the tangible results achieved by the Global Health Security Agenda(GHSA)* that they have closely worked with, and agreed on a detailed plan for healthcare cooperation, including revising the MOUs and expanding research cooperation.

* The Global Health Security Agenda(GHSA) is a global effort launched in 2014 to respond to new and emerging infectious disease threats, including SARS, MERS, and COVID-19.

Also, Deputy Minister Lim attended the signing ceremony for the MOU on comprehensive research cooperation between Korea’s National Cancer Center and the U.S. National Cancer Institute(NCI), which was held later on the same day at the National Institute of Health(NIH).

Cancer research is an area of common interest to the ROK and the U.S., and the two have held ongoing talks on joint research and other collaboration opportunities over the years. The value of cooperation has been reconfirmed by signing the MOU on comprehensive research cooperation between the two research organizations.

Deputy Minister Lim expressed expectation that combining Korea’s cancer research resources and treatment competencies and U.S.‘s cutting-edge cancer research capacity would result in innovative outcomes.

In addition, Deputy Minister Lim met with Korean scientists in the U.S. and representatives of the Korean-American Professional Association in Life Sciences(KAPAL) to listen to the experiences of researchers. They also discussed the importance of supporting pharmaceutical and bio R&D and the future direction of the Korean version of Cluster. ///