[The New Path of Bio, Anti-Aging] ③ Why Did Samsung's Anti-Aging Research, Once Ahead of Google, Fall 13 Years Behind?

Samsung Well-Aging Center Disbanded After Three Years
Fragmented Ministries and Lack of Long-Term Investment
Widening Global Gap

① "The Fight Against Aging": Establishing a Global New Industry

② Untapped Opportunities in Korea: Anti-Aging Drugs Even Big Pharma Hasn't Solved

③ Why Did Samsung's Anti-Aging Research, Once Ahead of Google, Fall 13 Years Behind?

④ K-BigHeart's Dream of a Korean Version of IMEC

The reason Korea has fallen behind in the anti-aging race lies not so much in the capabilities of individual researchers as in structural limitations: the lack of long-term investment and the absence of a control tower.

Korea’s anti-aging research was actually ahead at the outset of global competition. It began in January 2013 when Samsung Electronics established the Well-Aging Research Center under its Advanced Institute of Technology, staffed by 20 PhD-level researchers. Google established its anti-aging subsidiary Calico about six months later. Since then, Calico has emerged as a global hub for anti-aging research, securing a cumulative $2.5 billion (approximately KRW 3.6875 trillion) joint R&D contract with AbbVie, among other milestones.

In contrast, the Samsung Electronics Well-Aging Center quietly closed down after about three years. Although key personnel moved to Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) to continue their work, industrial research organizations and university research centers inevitably differ significantly in scale and character.

According to industry and academic sources as of May 13, the gap in anti-aging research capabilities between Korea and the United States is widening on both the private and government sides. In the U.S., big tech capital supports one pillar of anti-aging research. Calico is a private research institute that combines the capital and drug development infrastructure of Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and AbbVie. Altos Labs, backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, launched in 2022 with a funding scale of $3 billion (about KRW 4.4535 trillion). In Korea, after the dissolution of the Samsung Well-Aging Center, there is virtually no long-term, industry-level anti-aging R&D hub left.

The gap at the government level is even greater. The National Institute on Aging (NIA), under the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), serves as a unified control tower covering everything from basic research funding to clinical trials and health policy. Mayo Clinic and the Buck Institute, supported by government funding, have become centers for the development of senolytics—therapies that selectively eliminate aging cells. Japan operates the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology (NCGG). The European Union and the Netherlands also have dedicated research institutions.

Korea has no such unified institution. Previous attempts to establish a National Institute on Aging have stalled. The Ministry of Health and Welfare secured a 49,588-square-meter site in Osong Bio Valley, North Chungcheong Province, and finalized the construction, but the project was scrapped just before groundbreaking. The relevant bill has been pending in the National Assembly for an extended period, resulting in the cancellation of the establishment plan. In 2021, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency announced renewed intentions to pursue the project, and the National Institute of Health under its umbrella launched a task force in January this year. However, a concrete roadmap has not yet been released.

The separation of budgets and policies also hinders progress: the Ministry of Science and ICT handles basic and applied R&D, the Ministry of Health and Welfare manages translational, clinical, public health, and elderly welfare, while the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is responsible for commercialization. Yoon Il Yoon, Director of the DGIST Well-Aging Research Center, said, "Establishing a National Institute on Aging to centralize anti-aging research requires a government-level control tower. The Ministry of Health and Welfare focuses on care, the Ministry of Science and ICT on R&D, and the Ministry of Industry on industrialization. This fragmented focus makes coordination difficult."

There is also no pathway to advance projects as large-scale, long-term initiatives. Previously, research institutions such as Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) formed a consortium and applied for a preliminary feasibility study in the field of aging but all failed to pass. Professor Yoon Il Yoon pointed out that the biggest barrier is that aging is not registered as a disease code (ICD). For the economic feasibility analysis, which is a key evaluation item in the preliminary study, diseases can be quantified by the number of patients, treatment costs, and market size, whereas there is no basis for calculating aging. As a result, researchers have no choice but to take an indirect approach, targeting geriatric diseases like sarcopenia.

Lee Youngsam, Professor of New Biology at DGIST, said, "Aging phenotypes do not emerge overnight, so research must be conducted over at least 10 or 20 years." He emphasized, "An integrated, pan-ministerial approach—covering R&D, treatment, and social welfare—is especially urgent in the field of aging." He argues that if the reason Korea fell 13 years behind despite starting six months earlier was due to the system rather than the researchers, then the variable that will determine the gap going forward also lies in the system.