“Medical Industry of Korea Needs to Focus on Stem Cells and ICT”

Axel Baur, senior partner at McKinsey & Company, advised the health and medical industry of Korea to choose areas of concentration in order to overcome the limited size of the domestic market. He mentioned stem cell therapy and information and communications technology-based medical activities as its most promising segments during his keynote speech at the 2015 Biomedical Korea Conference that kicked off on April 8 at the COEX Convention Center located in Seoul.

The health care and medical market of Korea is equivalent to approximately 100 trillion won (US$91.5 billion), just 1.5 percent or so of the global market. However, its R&D expenses account for as much as 4.4 percent of the country’s GDP. According to him, the abundant financial resources can sharpen Korean pharmaceutical companies’ competitive edge when spent for appropriate purposes. 

“The combined R&D expenditures of the top 10 Korean drug makers are only US$0.4 billion, while the development of a new drug takes at least US$1 billion, and this is why they should choose and focus,” he said, continuing, “Korea has a comparative advantage in the fields of, for example, stem cell therapy and telemedicine, and it would be well advised to concentrate on such areas to lead the global market in the future.”