From Demonstration to Licensing... Strengthening Korea-Japan Bio Cooperation

‘Korea-Japan Bio Entrepreneurs Roundtable’ Follow-up Actions
Implementation of Investment Linkage, Corporate Cooperation, and Governmental Collaboration

Korea-Japan bio cooperation is being strengthened.

On the 26th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that as a follow-up to the 'Korea-Japan Bio Entrepreneurs Roundtable' chaired by Minister Oh Young-joo at Shonan iPark in Japan last May, it will promote demonstration, technology development, corporate cooperation, investment, non-clinical and clinical trials, and regulatory approval.

Eight companies selected in the Chungbuk Advanced Regenerative Bio Global Innovation Zone will move into Shonan iPark starting this month to begin full-scale demonstration and research and development (R&D) activities. Shonan iPark is a global bio cluster established by Takeda, a global big pharma company in Japan, which opened its own R&D center in 2018 to bio ventures, universities, research institutes, and non-clinical and clinical institutions.

The selected companies aim to develop cell and gene therapies such as arthritis cell therapy, organoid-based regenerative therapies, and induced pluripotent stem cell therapies, which face regulatory challenges for free R&D in Korea. To this end, they will pursue international joint R&D with Tokyo Medical University Hospital, Kyushu University, and Astellas Pharma.

Investment linkage will also be pursued. On this day, Lim Jeong-wook, Director of the Startup Venture Innovation Office at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, explored investment possibilities including a Korea-Japan joint fund with three Japanese venture capital (VC) firms, including the Korea-Japan joint fund management company, and Korea Venture Investment Corporation at Shonan iPark. Japanese VCs positively evaluated the technical and business capabilities of domestic companies while focusing on global market entry strategies through collaboration with Japanese pharmaceutical companies.

In the bio field, diversification of drug development methods such as cell and gene therapies and rising development costs have made outsourcing parts of the drug development process to specialized institutions a common practice. In particular, clinical research organizations (CROs) responsible for drug screening, pharmacology, and drug quality control during the R&D phase play a very important role.

Accordingly, Director Lim discussed support conditions for Korean companies and cooperation plans with financial institutions such as Japanese banks for funding linkage with representatives of Mediford and Nemoto Science, CROs leading the 'Shonan Changyak Support Consortium' established at the Tokyo Global Business Center (GBC) the day before to support new drug development by bio ventures in the Shonan area.

Additionally, on the 27th, Director Lim will meet Vice Chairman Taro Matsunaga at Astellas' Tsukuba Research Center, a global pharmaceutical company in Japan, to discuss participation of Korean companies in industry-academia-research collaborations, cooperation with Korean AI and ICT companies, and expert exchanges in regenerative medicine between the two countries. He will also discuss cooperation plans in decentralized clinical trials and AI healthcare with Kazuo Nagamura, Chairman of CMIC Pharma Science, Japan's first CRO.

Furthermore, Yoon Seok-bae, Director of the Special Zone Policy Division at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, plans to discuss government-level support for domestic bio ventures' activities in Japan, including corporate establishment and regulatory approval, with the Director of the Biochemical Department at Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on the 27th.

Director Lim said, "New drug development by bio ventures requires linkage and cooperation among various stakeholders, and limiting support to domestic efforts has limitations in achieving results. We will continue to provide support to build a global cooperation ecosystem that is difficult to access at the individual company level."

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