Park Young-sun "Fostering Startups for Infectious Disease Prevention and Treatment"… COVID-19 Briefing

Park Young-sun, Minister of SMEs and Startups

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 13th that Minister Park Young-sun held a meeting with startups working to eradicate infectious diseases such as COVID-19.

The meeting was held at the startup Hubet Bio located in Munjeong-dong, Seoul. Hubet Bio is a company developing products and vaccines for diagnosing and treating new viruses. About 10 representatives from virus-related startups attended the meeting.

Minister Park introduced the efforts made so far through public-private cooperation, including the supply of masks from China and domestically and the provision of hand sanitizers in response to the spread of COVID-19, as well as support plans for affected companies such as policy financing. Minister Park emphasized, "To prepare more fundamentally for the future, it is necessary to foster startups that prevent and treat infectious diseases through a shift in perspective."

She also explained cases of startups contributing to the eradication of COVID-19, including CoGen Biotech, which was the first in Korea to receive approval from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency for diagnostic reagents that can quickly determine COVID-19 infection status and supplies them to 52 hospitals, and university student Lee Dong-hoon, who developed a COVID map that informs the movement paths of confirmed patients, helping to alleviate public anxiety.

Minister Park promised to foster startups related to public safety.

Minister Park said, "We will provide startups with growth potential in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, digital healthcare, and bio-materials with 600 million KRW in startup and commercialization funds over three years, up to 600 million KRW in research and development (R&D) over two years, up to 10 billion KRW in policy funds, and 3 billion KRW in technology guarantees," adding, "We also plan to promote preferential participation in startup support projects related to infectious disease prevention and treatment, as well as commercialization of research outcomes from research-oriented hospitals."

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups also expressed its willingness to resolve field requests related to most regulations, including public and private data openness, alleviation of restrictions when designating testing and inspection institutions, and clinical trials and usage approvals after diagnostic kit development.

Minister Park stated, "We will actively strive to resolve these issues through consultations with regulatory authorities via the Top 10 Regulatory Improvement Task Force and the Small and Medium Business Ombudsman."

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