The Union Cabinet on June 13 approved an agrrement between the ICMR and France's INSERM for cooperation in the field of medical, life science and health research, an official statement said.

According to the agreement, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and France's Institute National de la Santeet de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM) will focus on issues such as diabetes and metabolic disorder, rare diseases, bio-ethics with focus on gene editing and rare diseases, it said. They will further work on areas of mutual interest after discussion, it said, adding that the MoU, which will strengthen the relations between ICMR and INSERM, will also help both sides to gain excellence in health research in the specified areas.