The Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) completed its annual K-Pharma Academy (KPA) program last week, introducing the nation’s medical and pharmaceutical industry to officials from Latin American countries.

Throughout the weeklong course, foreign participants learned about the recent and most innovative tactics from Korean pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturers as well the nation’s regulatory systems and the government’s policy supports, said officials at the state agency.

The Latin American visitors also visited the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety as well as pharmaceutical companies and hospitals here.

“By providing the KPA program, we wished to strengthen the G2G cooperation between Korea and Latin American countries in the field of healthcare. Foreign participants could learn about Korea’s high technology and well-organized system,” said Jeong Jeong-mi, a deputy director of the institute, said. “We also believe it would help Korean companies extend their business to Latin America.”

Since KHIDI launched the program in 2013, officials from 13 Latin American countries have attended it -- Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Columbia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Panama and Uruguay.

“All related institutions, companies, and hospitals were very supportive and actively contributed to operating this program smoothly,” Jeong said. “Our institute is willing to host KPA more than once a year, but it takes a lot of time to prepare,” Jeong added.

Participants also voiced out their positive opinions about the KPA program. “I have learned a lot since I came to Korea,” Pablo Venegas, director of the company Cenabast in Chile, said. “Korea is ahead of South America in many areas, particularly in the development of medicine. Our job is to search the markets for new drugs actively, and I can confidently say that Korea will be on our list of providers for new medicines.”

Ana Carmo, a regulatory affair and health surveillance specialist in the Brazilian company Anvisa, said, “Korea developed so much in the last 50 years, and it’s impressive to see how high-tech it is.”

Another Chilean agreed. “I would thoroughly recommend anyone who is interested in learning Korean healthcare to take this program,” said Pablo Ortiz, a sub-director for the Public Institute of Chile.