Singapore, Jan 18, 2010: South Korea has been ranked the 12th and the 15th in global biotechnology competitiveness, measured by number of science and technology papers and patented technologies, respectively. There have been noticeable achievements in research since 2000 and research outcomes are turning into new business opportunities.
According to 2008 figures, Korea accounts for 1.9 percent of the global market in pharmaceuticals as its local market stood at $16.8 billion. It is growing at over 10 percent and it is expected to continue to grow on the back of increasing consumption of pharmaceutical products by the locals.
In December 2008, Dr. In-Chull Kim, CEO of LG Life Sciences, sharing his views about the life sciences market for 2009, noted “In the midst of global financial crisis, we have experienced severe fluctuation of currency rates in Korea and many other Asian countries. Financial experts anticipate this trend to continue throughout 2009. Companies having mostly in-licensed and generic products may have particularly challenging prospects.”
Despite the global financial crisis, the Korean pharmaceutical industry continued to get the attention of the global players mainly because of the government support. In 2009, Korean government identified “biopharmaceutical and medical equipment” as one of the future engines for economic growth.
Dr. Jeong-Sun Seo, President, KoreaBIO, a leading biotech industry organization in Korea said, “Despite the global recession, Korea’s large business groups are expanding investments on biotechnology to create new business opportunities. For example, Samsung Electronics plans to invest $400 million in biosimilar business for the next five years. Also, $80 million biomedical fund managed by Burrill & Company and KB Investment was launched in 2009, which could help promising Korean biotechnology companies step forward to significant global players.”
He further said, “We believe that one of the most promising sectors in 2010 is biosimilars and success in biosimilar business could set the ground for the development of innovative drugs and expand the business to new medical diagnosing and u-Health systems which the strength of Korea’s IT will benefit.”
As of early 2009, the life sciences industry in Korea consists of close to 2000 companies including 580 pharmaceutical companies and 600 biotech companies. As pointed out by Dr. Jeong-Sun Seo, the industry is moving towards high value added goods such as biotechnology products from generic medicines.
Year ahead for life sciences industry
Making his comments on the prediction for 2010, Dr In-Chull Kim, President & CEO, LG Life Sciences said, “In the year 2010, the Korean pharmaceutical industry will face a toilsome time due to the government’s intensified effort to bring down the price of the drugs over the last two to three years. But, the upcoming year will also offer a great chance and possibility for equipped companies in increasing their overseas expansion strategy for bio-similar and advanced drugs, concentrating investment plan on R&D for the new drug pipeline, and reducing their risks by importing end products to receive wide attention. ”
He further said, “APAC region will also follow the world trend so that it will increase R&D investments, conduct joint research with other pharmaceutical companies along with bio-industry, and increase collaboration with overseas pharmaceutical and bio-companies. This will bring intense competition but may be a great opportunity to expend new categories of business.”
Sharing his thoughts on for 2010 for life sciences industry in Korea, Mr Sung Wuk Kim, CEO, Hanall Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd said, “For Korean Bio-industry, 2010 will be a vital year for transformation. With highly skilled experts and technologies, number of Korean companies became global players within short period of time in various industries: automobile, semiconductor, information technology and chemical industry. Nevertheless, despite long history of Korean bio-pharmaceutical industry, there are no big success stories especially for the development of new drugs.”
However, he said, “Korean Bio-industry will revolutionize in 2010. This revolution will be led by the conglomerates that accumulated big capitals from their globally competitive business and the mid-scale pharmaceutical companies who have developed their own technologies.” Citing examples he said, “Recently, Samsung Electronics and Hanwha PetroChemical started to invest into bio-similar business initiated by Celltrion. To succeed in bio-similar business, it is important to secure large amounts of initial investments which can also act as an entry-barrier for the competitors. It is known that they have plan to invest decisively in 2010. ”
Companies like LG Life Sciences, Hanall Pharmaceutical, and Hanmi Pharmaceutical are developing next-generation protein therapeutics (so-called bio-better) targeting global market. It is anticipated that their accomplishments will be revealed in 2010.
On the other side, Dr B.G. Rhee, President, Green Cross Corp said, “2010 will be very critical year for the life science industry in Korea. Korean government has initiated special program for ‘biosimilar’ development and also set up fund to support this program. Several biopharma companies are preparing clinical trials and some companies are already in clinical trial for ‘biosimilar’ or ‘biobetter’ projects. Another area Korean government will be focusing is vaccine development. ”
Dr B.G. Rhee said, “Green Cross has successfully launched seasonal influenza vaccine and new H1N1 flu vaccine in Korea. Also recombinant Factor VIII “Greengene” was approved by Korean FDA and will go for global market. Green Cross is also focusing on oncology product. Anti-angiogenic peptide “Greenstatin” has filed IND in the US and will initiate Phase I trial in 2010. Vaccinia virus “JX-594” for hepatocllular carcinoma will get into multinational Phase III trial with US partner Jennerex, Inc. For ‘biosimilar’/’biobetter’ projects, Green Cross will initiate Phase II trial for pegylate G-CSF and Phase I trial for Fc-EPO. ”
Mr Jung-Jin Seo, CEO & Chairman, Celltrion, a leading contract manufacturing company said “Biosimilars’ and ‘Growth of emerging markets’ are the buzzwords in the Asian bio-pharmaceutical industry for 2010.” He put forward two points. First, the transition from chemical drugs to biologics has already become an irreversible trend in the global pharmaceutical industry. In particular, the patent expiration of blockbuster biologics and the global attempt to reduce healthcare cost draw attention to biosimilars. Under these circumstances, Asian countries including Korea, which has no patent issues and possess advanced R&D capability, are anticipated to take the initiative in the biosimilars market with their products in 2010. Secondly, one should pay keen attention to the importance and growth potentials of emerging markets such as Korea and China. Novartis, for instance, recently announced its $ 1 billion investment to expand its R&D operation in China. The slow growth in developed markets such as US and Europe has initiated the global pharmaceutical giants, such as GSK and Sanofi-Aventis, to expand their business to emerging markets due to constant increase in demand for growth of the healthcare industry. Therefore, emerging markets, including the Asian countries, will continue to grow their importance and growth potential in the bio-pharmaceutical industry in 2010. ”
Mr Han-Oh Park, CEO, Bioneer Corp. said, “The year 2010, the 10th anniversary year of the Human Genome Project, will be the year of acceleration for the practical application of genomics, such as the sequence-based diagnostics and therapeutics. The SIV pandemic in 2009 proved that qPCR is the next generation diagnostic. More than a hundred instruments have been setup by Bioneer to diagnosis SIV, allowing millions of tests to be done in South Korea. The established qPCR systems in the hospitals will expand the application to various molecular diagnostics. Also Chinese government setting up the RNAi institute in 2009 foreshadows the further advancement of the sequence-based therapeutics. The accumulated activity of siRNA in Asia will get us a step closer to the future therapeutics. “
“Prospect of Korean bioindustry is promising due to strong government support, large business groups such as Samsung and LG‘ involvements and biomedical funds to upgrade Korean bioindustry. As in Korea, many APAC countries are striving to develop the bioindustry as their key industry and we believe that there will be plenty of room for complementary cooperations between AP countries in 2010 and KoreaBIO will be open to discussions for such co-operations,” concludes Dr. Jeong-Sun Seo.
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