Samil PwC Says Speed of PoC for Lead Assets Is Critical for Korean Bio Companies

Report Publication

There was an opinion that, going forward, the key yardstick for the success of Korean bio companies will be how quickly they can make the proof of concept (PoC) of their lead assets visible.

Samil PwC announced on February 11 that it has published a report titled "The Battleground After Innovation: Execution Tasks for K-Bio" containing this analysis. Based on the key analyses released by PwC US after the "JP Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPMHC 2026)" held last month in San Francisco, the report summarizes the medium- to long-term changes in the global pharmaceutical and biotech industry and the core characteristics of the deal (M&A and licensing) environment, and then reinterprets them from the perspective of Korean companies.

First, the report analyzes that the global pharmaceutical and biotech industry has entered a phase of large-scale innovation. The main drivers were identified as the expansion of AI-based new drug development, the spread of next-generation modalities (types of treatment methods and technologies), the expansion of consumer-centric healthcare, and pressure for system transformation due to the growing burden of medical costs. However, it diagnoses that, from this year onward, the central criteria for corporate value and deal completion in the transaction environment will be how quickly and reliably innovation can be translated into clinical development, regulatory approval, and commercialization.

Against this backdrop, the report presents five key execution tasks that Korean pharmaceutical and biotech companies must undertake: embedding AI across the entire company; strengthening AI-based clinical design capabilities to accelerate the visibility of PoC for lead assets; reshaping portfolios around scarce assets within therapeutic areas and modalities; increasing commercialization speed by securing CMC and supply chain stability; and refining deal structures through AI-based due diligence and the use of alternative capital.

By company type, the report forecasts that, for Korean pharmaceutical and biotech companies, the speed at which the PoC of lead assets becomes visible and their ability to link this to global partnerships will become core competitive advantages. For contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) companies, it analyzes that, beyond simple production capacity competition, CMC quality reliability, supply stability, and hyper-intelligent operations enabled by AI and automation will become key selection criteria for global customers.

Seo Yongbeom, Samil PwC Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industry Leader (Partner), said, "From this year onward, innovation alone will not be enough in the global pharmaceutical and biotech industry; the key criteria that determine corporate value and deal completion will be how rapidly innovation can be translated into clinical development and commercialization," and emphasized, "Korean pharmaceutical and biotech companies must also structurally enhance the speed and executability across development, clinical, and CMC functions through AI embedding, and prepare so that, from the perspective of global partners, they are evaluated as having 'assets ready for immediate execution'."

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