Long-Awaited 'BioHealth Innovation Committee' in the Pharmaceutical and Bio Industry to Launch This Month

The long-awaited Pan-Governmental Control Tower for the pharmaceutical and bio industry, the Biohealth Innovation Committee, will be launched within this month.

A government official said on the 12th, "After reporting to the president this week, we plan to announce the regulations regarding the establishment and operation by presidential decree within next week." The ministries responsible for fostering the pharmaceutical and bio industry are the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Ministry of Science and ICT. Currently, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy handle industrial promotion, the Ministry of Science and ICT is in charge of basic research, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety oversee clinical research.

According to the regulations, the committee will be composed of up to 30 members. The government plans to appoint 30 members, including the Prime Minister as the chairperson, 12 ministers from various ministries, and 17 private members. The 12 ministers participating as members include those from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Commissioner of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the Commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, and the Director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The secretariat will be newly established under the Ministry of Health and Welfare as the Biohealth Innovation Promotion Group. The head of the promotion group is expected to concurrently serve as the Director of the Health Industry Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

The committee will establish mid- to long-term strategies on digital healthcare, bio big data, advanced regenerative medicine, health security, and the development of therapeutics and vaccines. It will also play a comprehensive and multidimensional role as a policy coordinator in areas such as research and development (R&D), policy finance, tax support, regulatory and legal improvements including approvals, workforce development, and global market expansion.

The pan-governmental control tower is an issue that the industry and academia have demanded for over a decade. It was judged that without a control tower to integrate and oversee pharmaceutical and bio policies, mid- to long-term policy support was impossible. Noh Yeon-hong, chairman of the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association, emphasized the swift implementation of the Innovation Committee, stating, "For Korea’s pharmaceutical and bio industry to become one of the top six global powers by 2027, the policies prepared by the government must be implemented quickly and systematically."

Earlier, in February, the government announced the ‘3rd Comprehensive Plan for Fostering and Supporting the Pharmaceutical and Bio Industry’ to leap forward as a global biohealth hub. The global pharmaceutical market was valued at $1.0435 trillion (1,686 trillion KRW) in 2021 and is expected to grow to $1.76 trillion by 2026. The domestic pharmaceutical market size is 25.4 trillion KRW, ranking 13th globally. The government aims to create two global blockbuster new drugs and nurture more than three global-level pharmaceutical and bio companies by 2027. Pharmaceutical exports, which recorded $8.1 billion last year, are targeted to double to $16 billion, and the plan includes creating quality jobs in the pharmaceutical and bio industry. A representative from a pharmaceutical and bio company said, "We hope that through the Innovation Committee, policies will be decided swiftly and that the industry’s needs will be intensively supported."

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