dd class="first" id="idm140400472492864">In response to the global spread of the H1N1 influenza virus after first being detected in North America in April 2009, WHO declared the first influenza pandemic in more than four decades on June 11 of the same year. In Korea, the arrival of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza triggered an integrated response that was mainly based on the 2006 Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response Plan. At least 270 fatal cases, 764 laboratory-thousand confirmed cases, and 3.6 million courses of antiviral agent use were reported to the end of August 2010 in this country. Even if government tried to control and mitigate the impact of pandemic by using public health and medical countermeasures, there were several issues found during the H1N1 pandemic responses. The main difficulty was the delayed and insufficient supply of pandemic vaccine. Therefore the mass vaccination campaign was begun after the peak of pandemic and its mitigation effect on the pandemic disease burden was diminished. The amount of stockpiled antiviral agents by government was not enough in the early phase of pandemic. The rapid antigen test for the H1N1 influenza showed low sensitivity, about 50%. Many infected people were seeking to be diagnosed with rRT-PCR test, which is expensive and not useful for the decision of antiviral use because of late test report. The communications among government, medical societies, general people and mass media were also not satisfactory. Lessons learned from the national response to the H1N1 pandemic made the government to launch the TEPIK in October 2010. TEPIK will incorporate those lessons into the future pandemic preparedness planning. The mission of TEPIK is to ensure the safety of the nation and people from the threat of pandemic influenza. TEPIK focuses to establish government-academic-institute-industry collaborative system with three main strategies; to expedite sharing of R&D information and preparation of national communication; to establish the preparedness and response of R&D investment strategy for usual and pandemic phase; and to secure the innovative and leading response technology against pandemic influenza. TEPIK has 34 research projects in eight research areas, which include vaccine; therapeutics; diagnostics; basic/mechanism; clinical/ policy; surveillance/epidemiology; innovative researches; and infrastructures. Research subjects in each research area will be stated in this presentation.

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