Daejeon City Establishes Ecosystem for 'Bio-Enterprise Startup and Growth' Based on Hospital Collaboration

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Daejeon City is set to create a bioenterprise startup and growth ecosystem based on cooperation with hospitals.

The city announced on the 7th that it was recently selected for the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s ‘2022 K-BioHealth Regional Center Support Project’ competition.

The support project aims to establish a platform that can support bioenterprises’ startups and technology commercialization by combining hardware elements such as local research spaces, facilities, and equipment with hospitals’ research resources and capabilities, with a total project budget of 2.4 billion KRW from next year through 2024.

Since 2019, under the supervision of Daejeon Technopark, the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s ‘Regional Cluster-Hospital Linked Bio Startup Incubating Support Project’ has been underway in Daejeon. The core of the project is to lay the foundation for building a network between the local bio cluster and hospitals.

The newly added K-BioHealth Regional Center Support Project is significant in that it develops the existing project by linking the central hub institution, the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Strategic Center, with six regional centers (Daejeon, Gyeonggi, Incheon, Wonju, Gimhae, Gwangju) and hospitals nationwide to build a cooperative infrastructure for clinical support, joint clinical research, and sharing of outcomes for enterprises.

Until now, the bio industry has faced difficulties because, although hospitals play an important role as suppliers of specimens and demanders of pharmaceuticals and medical devices in product research and development, individual bioenterprises have found it difficult to independently find points of cooperation with hospitals.

However, through this project, it will be possible to form cooperative networks not only with local hospitals but also with hospitals in the metropolitan area, which is expected by the city to create a synergy effect for the establishment of the ‘Daejeon-type Bio Startup Support Facility’ to be actively promoted from next year.

Myeong No-chung, Director of the Science and Industry Bureau of the city, said, “The K-BioHealth Regional Center Support Project is a clinical support specialized project based on cooperation with hospitals,” and added, “The city will do its best to create an ecosystem that supports the startup and growth of bioenterprises through this project.”

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