Bill Gates expected to meet with SK Group chair for bioscience, energy cooperation

Representatives from SK Bioscience and Gates Foundation, including Trevor Mundel (third from left), president of Global Health at Gates Foundation; Chey Chang-won (center), vice chair of SK Discovery; and Ahn Jae-yong (third from right), CEO of SK Bioscience, pose for a photo in western Seoul on Wednesday. (RIGHT Foundation)
Representatives from SK Bioscience and Gates Foundation, including Trevor Mundel (third from left), president of Global Health at Gates Foundation; Chey Chang-won (center), vice chair of SK Discovery; and Ahn Jae-yong (third from right), CEO of SK Bioscience, pose for a photo in western Seoul on Wednesday. (RIGHT Foundation)

SK Bioscience discussed ways to improve global health with the Gates Foundation, the Korean vaccine and biotechnology firm said Thursday.

According to SK Bioscience, SK Discovery Vice Chair Chey Chang-won and SK Bioscience CEO Ahn Jae-yong met with key representatives from the Gates Foundation, including Trevor Mundel, president of global health at the Gates Foundation, in Yeouido, Seoul on the previous day.

During the meeting, the two sides reaffirmed their long-standing partnership, which dates back to 2013 when they began collaborating on numerous pro-health initiatives, while reiterating their shared commitment to cooperating on vaccine development and public health projects for the world. They also explored ways to expand joint efforts to discover next-generation preventative medicines with an emphasis on research and development for pandemic preparedness.

SK Bioscience and the Gates Foundation have worked together on a number of projects, including the development of typhoid and pediatric diarrhea vaccines and other antiviral preventative solutions. They successfully developed and commercialized SKYCovione, Korea’s first homemade COVID-19 vaccine, in 2022. In the same year, Bill Gates traveled to Korea to celebrate the achievement as he met with SK Group Chair Chey Tae-won and SK Discovery Vice Chairman Chey Chang-won.

Visiting Seoul this week, Gates is reportedly expected to meet with SK Group Chair Chey on Thursday. SK Inc. and SK Innovation invested $250 million in Gates-founded small modular reactor developer TerraPower in 2022. Chey and Gates are likely to discuss cooperation in bioscience and energy.

The Research Investment for Global Health Technology, or RIGHT, Foundation announced that it held a meeting with the Gates Foundation on Wednesday as well as Korean companies — Bioneer, EuBiologics, LG Chem, Noul, SD Biosensor, SK Bioscience and QuadMedicine — to share the Gates Foundation’s global health investments and Korean companies’ development progress of vaccines, medicines and diagnosis devices.

The RIGHT Foundation was established by Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Gates Foundation and Korean companies as a non-profit organization aimed at improving health fairness of infectious diseases in mid- to low-income nations in 2018. So far, it has provided 118.9 billion won ($85 million) in support for 73 vaccine, medicine and diagnostic device R&D projects in collaboration with 110 partners.


hwkan@heraldcorp.com