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| SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, second from left, poses with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, third from left, to discuss shared commitments concerning global health in Yeouido, Seoul, Tuesday. From left, Ahn Jae-yong, CEO of SK bioscience, Chey, Gates and Chey Chang-won, executive vice chairman of SK Discovery. / Courtesy of SK bioscience |
By Kim Hyun-bin
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won met with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Yeouido, Seoul, to discuss shared commitments to global health, Tuesday.
SK Bioscience and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have collaborated since 2013, with the foundation funding SK Bioscience's efforts to develop several products, including a typhoid vaccine, a non-replicating rotavirus vaccine, the COVID-19 vaccine and an antiviral nasal spray for COVID-19.
The organizations will continue to explore opportunities for future collaboration to address unfulfilled global health needs and accelerate the R&D of new tools to improve pandemic preparedness and response.?
The day before, SK Group announced that they have invested $250 million in U.S. nuclear reactor design firm TerraPower for joint business opportunities.
TerraPower was founded by Bill Gates in 2008 for the development of small modular reactors (SMRs) as well as radioisotopes for cancer treatment and other medical uses.
TerraPower is an innovative company in the nuclear power plant industry with next-generation sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) design technology. It aims to build its first SFR in the U.S. in 2028.
Through the investment, SK Inc., the holding company of SK Group and SK Innovation, plans to jointly develop next-generation technologies required for SMRs, SK Group said in a statement.
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