Chairman of the Chong Kun Dang Kochon Foundation Kim Doo-hyun, second from right, poses with Stop TB Partnership Executive Director Lucica Ditiu, left, Kochon Prize committee member Mel Spigelman, second from left, Yana Terleeva from the Center for Public Health of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, center, and Olga Gvozdetscka from the Center for Public Health of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, right, during the Kochon Prize award ceremony in New York, Wednesday. Courtesy of Chong Kun Dang

The Chong Kun Dang (CKD) Kochon Foundation has awarded Ukraine health authorities for their medical effforts to treat tuberculosis during the ongoing war with Russia, the Korean pharmaceutical company said Sunday.

The receipients of prize were two institutions and one individual, including the Center for Public Health of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the Southern Kherson Pulmonary Tuberculosis Medical Center and Zhanna Karpenko, the director of the Chernihiv Regional Medical Center. The prize was jointly launched by CKD Kochon Foundation and Stop TB Parnership, a subsidiary under the United Nations Office for Project Services which is an international alliance to treat tuberculosis, in 2005.

The 17th Kochon Prize award ceremony was on last Wednesday on the sideline of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Streamed live by Stop TB Partnership's YouTube and Facebook, Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Jee Young-mee, Ukraine's First Deputy Minister of Health Serhii Dubrov and Malawi's first lady Monica Chakwera gave opening speeches for the event.

The prize recognized the Ukraine public health center's achievement of having treated over 12,000 tuberculosis patients following the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The authority set up an emergency system to continue the medical service even during the wartime, according to CKD Kochon Foundation.

Yana Terleeva from the public health center, who received the prize on behalf of the authority, said the award is "more than a prize, but a hope and new start of the future."

The Southern Kherson Pulmonary Tuberculosis Medical Center has won recognition after it launched an online service to continue accepting patients following the start of the war. CKD Kochon Foundation said the authority issued doctors' diagnostic notes and prescriptions via emails and helped treat 400 tuberculosis patients and 3,500 HIV patients.

Karpenko protected 54 tuberculosis patients under hospitalization by evacuating them and providing them with medical support during the war. The company said she also provided Ukraine refugees with food, fuels and daily necessities.

THe KCD Kochon Foundation gives out $100,000 each year to winners of the prize. Twelve scholars and 14 institutions have so far been awarded the prize with the prize money totaling over $3.14 million.

The foundation was established by the company founder Lee Chong-kun in 1973.