Inter-Korean biomedical cluster suggested for health cooperation

Establishing an inter-Korean biomedical cluster could be one of the methods for two Koreas to cooperate in the health sector, an expert said.

The Korean Society of Global Health and the Association of Healthcare for Korean Unification hosted a conference, “Global Health Crisis and the Health Community of the Korean Peninsula,” on Thursday.

At the event, South Korean health experts suggested various ways to support North Korea and collaborate with the North in the health sector.

Professor Park Sang-min of family medicine at Seoul National University Hospital noted that international affairs could easily shake North Korea’s health system because the North relies on international organizations’ support for most of its health and medical resources.

According to Park, Pyongyang’s insufficient finances led to a collapse of health regulations, which spurred the growth of the underground healthcare market.

He said this increased North Korean patients’ medical costs and worsened disparities in healthcare access.

“North Korea’s response system weakened even against non-infectious diseases,” he said.

North Korea’s health resources mostly come from Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and the Global Fund that fights tuberculosis and malaria, Park went on to say.

If the North keeps depending on particular organizations for health management, it can become very vulnerable to international politics, and discontinuation of international support would bring a serious health crisis to the North, he said.

Park proposed establishing an “Inter-Korean Biomedical Cluster” for health cooperation in the post-pandemic era.

He said that under the inter-Korean biomedical cluster, there could be an inter-Korean life science research institute for R&D and an inter-Korean general hospital for clinical research. Then, the biomedical cluster can commercialize research outcomes, he added.

The two Koreas can benchmark Medicon Valley, a life sciences cluster built between the borders of Denmark and Sweden to overcome an economic crisis, Park said.

Medicon Valley comes within the world’s top three biomedical clusters. More than 1,500 pharmaceutical companies and biotech ventures are located there.

Park suggested that the inter-Korean life science research institute study humans, animals, plants, and the environment. In addition, he said that an inter-Korean general hospital could research zoonotic diseases and conduct clinical trials.

“If the inter-Korean biomedical cluster has a business platform to commercialize those research results, the two Koreas can have economic complementation,” he added.

The cluster can also be used for infectious disease control or the development of new vaccines and treatments, Park went on to say.

If the two Koreas conduct R&D together, conduct a trial of a candidate substance at the general hospital, and produce the verified agent at the biomedical cluster, they can induce international development cooperation in health, he said.

“There are too many hurdles to overcome. But experts in various fields should start thinking about this to draw a roadmap in time for eased sanctions against the North,” Park emphasized.

In seeking inter-Korean cooperation in health, the government said it is important to have a systematic approach and build a consensus among the Korean people.

It said it would expand the Health and Medical Cooperation Platform on the Korean Peninsula, launched in September.

Nam Jong-woo, director of the Humanitarian Cooperation Planning Division at the Ministry of Unification, said the South Korean government maintained a position to continue humanitarian cooperation, including health cooperation with North Korea, regardless of political or military situations.

As the North announced late last year that it would switch to “advanced and people-oriented quarantine,” the situation in the North could improve, he said.

Nam said, this year, the government would expand the Health and Medical Cooperation Platform on the Korean Peninsula launched in September.

“It is important that health and medical cooperation on the Korean Peninsula is systematically implemented based on a national consensus. Therefore, I hope that many experts will participate in the Health and Medical Cooperation Platform on the Korean Peninsula with an open-mindedness.” KBR