Stop TB Partnership

About the Kochon Prize

The Stop TB Partnership-Kochon Prize is fully funded by the Kochon Foundation, a non-profit foundation registered in the Republic of Korea.

The Prize was established in 2006 in honour of the late Chairman Chong-Kun Lee (left), founder of both the Foundation and Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corp. in Korea. "Kochon" is the pen name that he used.

Born in a small Korean village in 1919, Chong-Kun Lee was too poor to access a higher education. Despite his poverty Lee grew up with a constructive and optimistic view of the world. Through his diligence, frugality and initiative the small drug store he founded in 1941 grew to become the Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corporation, one of the most important Korean pharmaceutical manufacturers. While doing business, Chong-Kun Lee realized how the high price of drugs would negatively affect access to life-saving drugs like antibiotics and anti-TB drugs. These drugs were expensive because most were imported. Chong-Kun Lee decided he could reduce prices though bulk production of drugs via synthesis and fermentation technology.

In the 1960s the government and people of Korea were still struggling with fighting TB. The country's weak economy did not allow poor patients to afford then-expensive anti-TB drugs. That changed when Chong-Kun Lee's company began producing anti-TB drugs such as ethambutol and rifampicin using its own technology and became the major supplier of both raw materials and final products.

Once his business stabilized, Chong-Kun Lee sought a way to share his achievements with society. At first, he helped employees pursue studies at night and then he decided to provide young people with better opportunities for education. In March 1973 he established a foundation to award scholarships, grants and research funds. The assets of the foundation grew from US$ 20,000 at the outset to US$ 21 million in 1993, the year he died.

The Foundation, a non-profit organization, is legally and financially independent from the Chong Kun Dang pharmaceutical company. The late Chong-Kun Lee emphasized that he had a mission to supply better medicines to everyone who needed them. The Kochon Foundation is unable to supply medicines, but it has been implementing Chong-Kun Lee's philosophy. The Foundation's desire to actively contribute to the fight against TB resulted in the establishment of the Stop TB Partnership - Kochon Prize.