The South Korean biopharmaceutical industry is on the upswing, ranking second to Singapore in innovation and competitiveness among emerging countries. Globally, the Korean biopharma industry is valued at $17 billion and represents 2% of the market, with a 0.1% annual growth rate. The reason for the slow but steady growth is due to South Korean companies mostly focusing on the production of generic and slightly modified drugs, as well as limited control over pricing, since the government regulates drug costs.

In order to accelerate growth, the Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and Ministry of Health and Welfare have steadily increased R&D in biopharma. In 2016, the federal government invested $206.5 million in biopharma R&D. The government has also established programs to increase drug development over the past decade, such as the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Korea National Enterprise for Clinical Trial in 2007 and the Korea Clinical Trials Global Initiative in 2016. Since 2000, clinical trial numbers have grown 20 times, with 56% of the trials carried out by domestic pharmaceutical firms. There have been 675 clinical trials in total in Korea, with domestic pharmaceutical companies conducting 379 and multinational pharmaceutical firms overseeing 296. As of July 2016, the Korea Drug Development Fund, a federal program fostering drug R&D, has signed licensing agreements for 21 drug pipelines valued at $3.5 billion and has funded 116 research projects worth $130 million.

Source: Korea Biomedical Review