Chairman Won Hee-mok: "Full Effort in Developing COVID-19 Treatments and Vaccines... Realizing Pharmaceutical Sovereignty"

Korean Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Association President's New Year Press Conference

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] “The tasks assigned to Korea's pharmaceutical and bio industry this year can be summarized as realizing pharmaceutical sovereignty and advancing globally. We will devote all our capabilities to protect the public from COVID-19 and open the era of K-Pharm on the global stage.”

Won Hee-mok, chairman of the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association, expressed this determination at an online New Year's press conference held on the 27th. Chairman Won said, “As the importance of domestic production and stable supply of medicines has become more prominent, this year there is expected to be increased demand for measures to enable the independent development and production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, vaccines, and essential medicines,” adding, “We will responsibly carry out the development of therapeutics and vaccines to make this a turning point in establishing pharmaceutical sovereignty.”

The association identified four major tasks for this year: ▲strengthening health security ▲creating blockbusters ▲accelerating global expansion ▲innovating the industrial environment. Above all, it is determined to make an all-out effort to support vaccine and therapeutic development to overcome the current COVID-19 situation. According to the association, while the U.S. government invested 12 trillion won in private companies related to COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutic development, Korea's budget for COVID-19 within the infectious disease crisis response budget this year is only 262.7 billion won. Accordingly, the association plans to expand the scope and scale of related research and development support. It will cooperate with the government to develop corporate support programs and request support measures such as loss guarantee systems to ensure that medicines under development bear fruit even after the pandemic ends.

Chairman Won also shared plans to increase the self-sufficiency rate of domestic active pharmaceutical ingredients. He said, “During the COVID-19 phase, Korea maintained a 74% self-sufficiency rate in finished medicines and was free from medicine shortages, but the self-sufficiency rate of active pharmaceutical ingredients hit a record low of 16%. Among about 2,000 raw ingredients, we have selected around 200 that urgently require localization and will focus on nurturing them so that the self-sufficiency rate of active pharmaceutical ingredients can be raised to about 50% in five years.”

Following last year, the importance of global open innovation was reiterated. Through this, the strategy is to activate strategic alliances and maximize blockbuster new drug capabilities by developing convergent and advanced biopharmaceuticals. Chairman Won explained, “Cases like the U.S. Gilead and Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical, which have risen to the ranks of global pharmaceutical companies through major mergers and acquisitions and pipeline expansion, indicate the direction of innovation,” adding, “We will create a global success model through government’s full support expansion that leads to global late-stage clinical trials by focusing and selecting research and development, expanding scale through mergers and acquisitions, creating global blockbusters, and establishing mega funds.”

In addition, to enable domestic companies to boldly advance globally, the association will establish and begin full operation of the ‘Korea Pharmaceutical Bio Innovation Center (tentatively named KPBIC)’ in Boston, USA. It also plans to establish a second KPBIC in an EU hub country. By analyzing technology demand by country, it will establish customized local market entry strategies and actively pioneer expansion into emerging markets.

Finally, Chairman Won appealed for government support to foster the industry. He urged, “There is an urgent need to establish a presidential-level control tower that can comprehensively oversee the development and promotion of policies throughout the entire cycle from basic research, clinical trials, to global expansion,” and added, “Furthermore, regulatory advancement and bold policy implementation are necessary to ensure investment expansion through sufficient value compensation for R&D outcomes.”

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