‘Pathogen Resource Shared Research Facility’ Completed in Daejeon... Full Operation Starting April Next Year

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The 'Pathogen Resource Shared Research Facility' has been established in Daejeon and is scheduled to be fully operational starting April next year.

According to Daejeon City on the 11th, the Pathogen Resource Shared Research Facility was built at the Chungnam National University Hospital Medical and Life Science Convergence Research Center as part of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' 'Biomedical Regulatory Free Zone Demonstration Project.'

The city invested a total project cost of 15.28 billion KRW (7.64 billion KRW each from national and city funds), completed the construction of the Pathogen Resource Shared Research Facility last month, and recently held a completion ceremony.

Equipped with Biosafety Level 3 (BL3), this facility is significant as the nation's first pathogen resource shared research space designed for joint use by local hospitals and companies.

Pathogen resources are substances that cause and spread infectious diseases in humans. For example, the COVID-19 virus is classified as a new type of variant pathogen.

Recently, with the increase in cases of new infectious diseases such as COVID-19, there has been a growing demand for the development of diagnostic devices, new drugs, and vaccines related to infectious diseases.

However, until now, small bio venture companies faced limitations in acquiring pathogen resources for research and experiments, which created high entry barriers for developing infectious disease-related diagnostic devices, according to the city.

The establishment of the Pathogen Resource Shared Research Facility aligns with this issue. By providing an environment where hospitals and small bio venture companies can jointly conduct experiments and research within the facility, it aims to secure rapid response capabilities to infectious diseases.

Daejeon City and Chungnam National University Hospital plan to complete administrative procedures, including approval from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, to allow small bio venture companies to jointly use the facility with the hospital starting April next year after a pilot operation period.

The city expects that once the Pathogen Resource Shared Research Facility is fully operational, collaboration between local hospitals and small bio venture companies will enable the development and early commercialization of infectious disease-related therapeutics, vaccines, and diagnostic devices.

Lee Seok-bong, Head of the Economic and Science Department of Daejeon City, said, “We are honored that Daejeon is the only city nationwide designated as a regulatory free zone in the pathogen resource field, enabling the establishment of the Pathogen Resource Shared Research Facility. We will continue to listen to and address the difficulties faced by local small bio venture companies in the field.”

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