Developing Biosimilar Drugs... 420 Billion KRW Investment in Bio Sector

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] The government will invest 420 billion KRW this year to secure Korea's bio core technologies, including the development of organoid chips that mimic human organs.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 7th that it has finalized the 2020 implementation plan for the bio sector's core technology development project. According to this plan, the government will invest 420 billion KRW this year, marking a 10.1% increase compared to the previous year.

Establishment of AI New Drug Development Platform, New Drug Development Based on 3D Organoid Chips

This year, the government will strengthen global competitiveness in key bio fields such as new drugs, medical devices, and brain research. It will invest 61.4 billion KRW to secure new drug platform technologies including innovative new drug pipeline discovery, new target discovery and validation, and drug screening. In particular, new convergence technology projects such as the establishment of an AI new drug development platform (5.55 billion KRW) and a 3D organoid chip-based new drug development platform (2.5 billion KRW) will be launched.

In the medical device sector, 29.5 billion KRW will be invested to support 'full-cycle medical device R&D' from research and development to productization, clinical trials, and regulatory approval. In the precision medicine field, research will be conducted to integratively discover and analyze bioinformation (omics) data such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and transcriptomics.

Artificial Intelligence New Drug Development, etc.

The government will also respond to changes in the medical paradigm brought by the 4th Industrial Revolution. Starting this year, it will collect bio big data for research from 20,000 individuals and pilot a utilization system across related ministries.

This year, 5.55 billion KRW will be invested again in AI new drug development. A next-generation drug evaluation platform development project using 3D organoids to accurately predict the efficacy and toxicity of new drug candidates will also begin. Organoids refer to organ-like structures created by three-dimensional culturing or recombination of stem cells.

The government will also focus on developing treatment technologies for public health issues such as dementia and infectious diseases. From this year, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Health and Welfare will jointly support research on dementia cause identification, pathogenesis, prediction and early diagnosis, prevention, and treatment technology development. Investments will also be made in diagnosis, prediction, and treatment technology development for core brain diseases such as brain developmental disorders, emotional disorders like depression, and brain nerve damage. To strengthen infectious disease response capabilities, 24.4 billion KRW will be poured into securing core technologies for infectious disease prevention and treatment, including new and mutated virus response technology development.

According to this plan, starting on the 8th, new projects in major fields such as new drugs and stem cells will be announced.

Goseogon, Director of Basic Core Research Policy, stated, "The bio sector is a technology-based industry where securing core technologies leads to market preemption, and new markets develop based on convergence technologies. Accordingly, we will actively support research and development to preempt global core markets in fields such as new drugs and medical devices, and secure future medical technologies that combine bio with AI and big data."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.