[Reporter’s Notebook] K-Bio in the Global Spotlight: Now Is the Time to Prove It

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"This is the Korean event, right? There are so many people here that you can't get in anyway."

Such comments were heard several times among people passing by the entrance of the 'Korea Night' event, which was held at The Howard Hotel in San Francisco, USA, on January 14 (local time) during the ongoing JP Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPMHC). Korea Night is a global networking event hosted by the Korea Bio Association.

This year’s event drew a large crowd of participants from major biotech companies and global pharmaceutical and investment firms from North America, Europe, and Asia. The venue, which could accommodate about 650 people for a standing reception, reportedly had over 1,500 pre-registered attendees. Korea Night has now transformed from simply being a gathering place for Koreans abroad into a place where the global community actively seeks out Korea.

This atmosphere was not unique to Korea Night. Throughout JPMHC, the way international attendees viewed Korean companies shifted from merely confirming their existence-thinking, "Were there such companies in Korea?"-to actively verifying and assessing their clinical and commercialization competitiveness. Attendees asked questions such as, "What clinical data do you have?", "What are your target indications?", and "How reproducible and scalable is your platform technology?"

Lee Seulgi, CEO of D&D Pharmatech, who was interviewed at JPMHC, said, "It felt as if there was special attention being given to Korean bio companies," adding, "Perhaps due to the recent stock market trends, even global institutional investors who previously had no interest in Korean biotechs are now showing interest, which is a particularly significant change."

However, this change in status does not immediately translate to new drug competitiveness. Lee Sanghoon, CEO of ABL Bio, whom we met at JPMHC, assessed that, "If the trend of Western big pharma actively engaging with China had continued, there is now a perception at JPMHC that 'Korea is next after China.'" Nevertheless, he pointed out that Korea still faces significant challenges in advancing both 'capital' and 'clinical' sophistication.

On the 14th of last month (local time), during the ongoing JP Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPMHC), the 'Korea Night' event held at The Howard Hotel in San Francisco, USA, was packed with attendees. Korea Bioindustry Association

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Because late-stage clinical trials favored by big pharma-large-scale trials involving hundreds of participants-are still insufficient among Korean biotech companies, Korea is still often evaluated as being focused on 'early-stage technology.' In technology transfer agreements, candidates in the preclinical to Phase 1 clinical stages are not highly valued.

CEO Lee said, "The ideal model is to generate profits through technology transfer and use those funds to further advance clinical trials toward commercialization," adding, "Korean companies need to move from 'early-stage technology' to 'clinical and commercial' stages to gain greater negotiating power with big pharma."

The Korean pharmaceutical and biotech industry has built its foundation and capabilities through the CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization) and biosimilar businesses, led by companies like Samsung Biologics and Celltrion. Based on accumulated regulatory experience and capital, it must now take on the risks of new drug development and prove itself through clinical trials. The long line in front of Korea Night was just another starting signal for K-Bio. The real competition begins now.

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