Support for First-in-class Drug Development
The South Korean government will invest a total of 2.93 trillion won (US$2.60 billion) in the biotech sector this year, up 2.9 percent from a year ago.
The Ministry of Science and ICT finalized the “2019 Biotechnology Promotion Plan” at a biotechnology policy council meeting held at Korea Bio Park in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, on Feb. 18.
Under the plan, the government will actively support the development of new technologies, such as first-in-class drugs and medical devices. It will also establish a platform which utilizes big data, including precision medicine and genome information, and facilitate the convergence and integration with biotechnology and information and communication technology (ICT). Based on this, it will develop disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment technologies to improve public health and the living environment.
In addition, the government will provide more support to promote innovative technologies and new industries through a regulatory sandbox. In this context, it has decided to come up with preemptive guidelines for convergence medical devices. It will also expand support for the whole stage of biotech firms from technology security to startup growth and capital recovery and create a related ecosystem by training medical doctors and scientists.