"Fostering Blockbuster New Drugs"... Government Establishes Integrated Support System for K-Bio

Ministry of Health and Welfare and Ministry of SMEs and Startups Announce Full-Cycle Collaboration Plan
Funding Support from Candidate Discovery to Clinical Trials
New Open Innovation Initiatives with Global Companies

The government has announced its full-scale support for the entire growth cycle of pharmaceutical and bio companies—from startup and clinical entry to global expansion—in an effort to become a global powerhouse in biopharmaceuticals.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups held a joint policy meeting on March 24, 2026, at the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association in Seocho-gu, Seoul, as a follow-up to the National Startup Era Strategy Conference presided over by the President. At this meeting, the ministries unveiled a comprehensive, full-cycle collaboration plan to systematically support the growth and global expansion of pharmaceutical bio-ventures.

This initiative is a government-wide strategy linked to the “Startup for All” project announced by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups at the National Startup Era Strategy Conference, aimed at strengthening the foundation for the creation of innovative new drugs by promising pharmaceutical bio-ventures.

Jung Eunkyung, Minister of Health and Welfare (center), is giving a greeting speech at the presentation of the full-cycle collaboration plan for innovative growth of pharmaceutical bio-ventures held on the 24th at the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

Accordingly, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will establish an integrated support system that organically connects the corporate growth stages and the full cycle of new drug development. Through this, the ministries will jointly discover and intensively support promising companies, while also creating a structure that connects R&D, commercialization, and global expansion. This strategy is designed to strategically foster candidate companies for blockbuster drugs and further enhance the global competitiveness of the K-Bio pharmaceutical industry.

The two ministries also plan to implement the so-called “4UP Strategy,” which tightly links support programs. The four specific strategies are: scaling up through the provision of innovative funding, speeding up results through open innovation, leveling up the innovation ecosystem to support growth, and boosting synergies through field-centered, collaborative policy design.

First, the ministries will jointly discover promising pharmaceutical bio-ventures via the “Scale-Up TIPS” platform, a program in which the government makes follow-up investments in companies identified and initially funded by private operators. Selected companies will receive a package of support—including R&D and commercialization funding and access to infrastructure—without any additional evaluation. They will also be given priority in subsequent R&D programs such as technology guarantees and the National New Drug Development Project, ensuring sufficient capital until clinical entry. By establishing a “relay-type support system” that connects R&D achievements directly to clinical trials and commercialization, the ministries aim to maximize the potential for successful outcomes.

Support for open innovation will also be expanded to accelerate technology transfer and new drug development achievements. The government will provide step-by-step support throughout the process, from exploring collaborations between companies to signing technology transfer contracts. The “Global Open Innovation Activation Support Project” will encourage cooperation between global and domestic companies at each stage of technology transactions. The ministries will actively support domestic companies’ entry into overseas hubs such as CIC Boston and Shonan iPark. Within Korea, new joint R&D projects will be established between AI ventures and pharmaceutical ventures, as well as between pharmaceutical companies and ventures. This will be linked to the support for utilizing medical data, and the criteria for certifying innovative pharmaceutical companies will be revamped accordingly.

Additionally, the government plans to increase infrastructure utilization by establishing a joint system for sharing research equipment and data, and by introducing a virtual platform to connect clusters. The ministries will jointly identify and address regulatory improvement tasks based on field needs, and will develop specialized statistics and monitoring systems for pharmaceutical bio-ventures to enhance policy precision. New joint R&D projects between AI-driven pharmaceutical bio-ventures and pharmaceutical companies will be launched to encourage early-stage new drug development collaboration. Furthermore, the new “K-Bio Technology Commercialization Together Run” program will provide integrated support, from technology development strategy and infrastructure utilization to global expansion.

The government expects that this collaboration plan will fill support gaps at each growth stage of pharmaceutical bio-ventures, expand global technology transfer and clinical entry, and build a virtuous cycle in which investment, R&D, commercialization, and global expansion are organically connected. In particular, it is anticipated that the “K-Bio growth ladder” will allow technologies developed domestically to be commercialized successfully in global markets.

Jung Eun-kyung, Minister of Health and Welfare, stated, “Pharmaceutical bio-ventures are the key drivers for Korea’s leap toward a globally leading economy. The government will build a growth ladder for K-Bio by fostering inter-ministerial collaboration, thereby enhancing global competitiveness. We will create a virtuous cycle in which innovation leads to industrial growth, and industrial growth in turn improves public health.”

Han Sung-sook, Minister of SMEs and Startups, said, “This collaboration plan focuses on promoting rapid scaling up by organically connecting government support programs and ensuring that technology quickly moves to commercialization through open innovation-based cooperation. We will actively support promising pharmaceutical bio-ventures so they can achieve results in the global market.”

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