The government announced on the 15th that it will nurture more than three pharmaceutical and bio unicorns (unlisted corporations valued at over 1 trillion won) by 2027 and achieve over 30 trillion won in bio venture technology exports to leap forward as one of the world's top five bio venture powerhouses.
The Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups presented the 'Pharmaceutical and Bio Venture Innovation Ecosystem Creation Plan' during the ministerial meeting on industrial competitiveness enhancement.
The plan includes four major strategies: promoting the commercialization of promising source technologies, creating a robust investment environment for bio ventures from the ground up, activating open innovation, and establishing an innovation base for bio ventures, with the goal of strengthening the global competitiveness of domestic pharmaceutical and bio ventures through a virtuous cycle.
The ministry plans to commercialize promising source technologies and attract investments to expand technology exports. It is anticipated that a virtuous cycle innovation ecosystem for pharmaceutical and bio ventures will be established, allowing for the development of new drugs as knowledge and capital accumulate in this process.
The support system for technology development in bio ventures will also be advanced. The ministry will plan technical cooperation with foreign entities that have extensive experience in research and development (R&D) and new drug development for the exploration of candidate substances, and will enhance technology collaboration reflecting clinical field needs through one-on-one matching between clinical physicians and startups.
To create an investment environment for bio ventures, a new venture fund will be established, with investments of 1 billion to 2 billion won for early-stage investments that verify the efficacy and Duksung of leading and candidate substances.
A fund to promote strategic collaboration between domestic bio ventures and domestic and foreign pharmaceutical and bio corporations will also be created. A fund involving 14 domestic pharmaceutical corporations will be established with a size of 16 billion won, while a fund involving Japanese bio-related corporations will be planned at a scale of 30 billion to 40 billion won.
A scale-up program strategy will be established, in which the government will provide matching support for investments in bio venture capital (VC) companies. The ministry aims to raise 600 billion won by creating 3 to 5 ‘K-bio and Vaccine Funds’ within this year for new drug development. Additionally, efforts will be made to strengthen the open innovation capabilities of domestic pharmaceutical corporations and activate global open innovation.
To this end, the ministry plans to identify successful collaboration models between domestic pharmaceutical companies and bio ventures and to devise joint development projects for new drug pipelines between pharmaceutical corporations and bio ventures. It will also lay the groundwork for collaboration with foreign companies, universities, and research institutions, supporting comprehensive open innovation with global enterprises.
In addition, to expand the innovation base for bio ventures, domestic systems will be improved by promoting overseas demonstrations and decentralized clinical trials. Strategic global collaboration foundations will also be established through cluster-based R&D and joint clinical projects.
Minister Oh Youngju noted, 'Although our country's bio ventures have grown to a world-class level, the creation of an ecosystem where innovation entities are organically consolidated is insufficient,' and said, 'We will spare no effort to create a virtuous cycle ecosystem that enables bio ventures to smoothly conduct technology transfer, accumulate knowledge and funds, and challenge the development of new drugs.'