Next Year, '520 Billion KRW' Invested in Infectious Disease Response and New Drug Development R&D

Ministry of Science and ICT
520 Billion KRW Invested in Developing Core Bio Technologies

Minister Choi Ki-young of the Ministry of Science and ICT is attending the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting on COVID-19 at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 23rd. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] The government will pour 520 billion won into fundamental technology development projects for infectious disease response and new drug development next year. This is a 24.9% increase compared to this year.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 22nd that it will promote next year's fundamental technology development projects in the bio sector. The projects will be carried out under three main strategies: preemptive securing of future response technologies, focused investment in core industrial sectors, and expansion of research related to public health. Large-scale R&D projects will be conducted in new drugs, medical devices, and regenerative medicine to foster core bio industries that will drive future economic growth.

560 billion won will be invested in new drug development. This will focus on early-stage development support such as new drug target discovery and validation, candidate substance derivation, as well as the establishment of AI-based new drug development platforms and next-generation drug evaluation systems. Additionally, 15 billion won will be invested to start a pan-government joint full-cycle new drug development support project. The total pan-government budget will reach 2.2 trillion won by 2030.

618 billion won will be invested in the medical device sector to support the development of convergent medical devices such as AI and robotics. To secure technological competitiveness in advanced regenerative medicine fields like organoids and induced pluripotent stem cells, 31.1 billion won will be invested.

Furthermore, the government will support next-generation bio technology development with 51.3 billion won, including a new investment of 5.2 billion won next year to preemptively secure four common core technologies: microbiome, synthetic biology, bioimaging, and single-cell analysis. 27.1 billion won will be allocated to promising future green and white bio sectors such as bio-based new material development, biodegradable bioplastics research, and natural product-based innovative product development.

Investment to create a bio research and utilization ecosystem will also be expanded. In the life research resources sector, 90.3 billion won will be invested to expand national infrastructure for self-reliance in bio research materials. Technology commercialization and startup R&D will receive 42.3 billion won, and disease-centered translational research projects will be supported with 29.2 billion won.

Core technology development related to infectious diseases, dementia, and brain disorders closely connected to public life will also be promoted. 31.7 billion won will be provided to secure basic and fundamental technologies to strengthen response capabilities against new and variant infectious diseases, and to develop highly effective COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines. In particular, 10.2 billion won will be invested to secure infectious disease platform technologies that can be rapidly applied in the event of an infectious disease crisis.

The government will also support brain sector core fundamental technology acquisition with 53.3 billion won for brain disease research and future brain convergence research through ICT convergence.

Kim Bong-su, Director of Basic Fundamental Research Policy, stated, "Bio technology competitiveness has become an essential element not only for the country's future economic development but also for a healthy and safe society. The Ministry of Science and ICT will continue to discover future core technologies and support the linkage of excellent fundamental technologies developed at universities and research institutes to companies, ensuring these translate into market outcomes."

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