Yoon Suk Yeol targets $149 billion bio industry by 2035

Industry

Published: 26 Mar. 2024, 19:26

Yoon Suk Yeol targets $149 billion bio industry by 2035

President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, is briefed on cardiovascular diseases at a hospital in Cheongju, North Chungcheong on Tuesday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration has pledged to foster the country's biopharmaceutical industry into a 200 trillion-won ($149 billion) sector by 2035 through expanded support in the digital bio sector in the face of an AI era.

North Chungcheong will stand at the center of this government initiative.

"The merger of AI and digital technology with traditional bio technology has led to a big transition to advanced bio, which has opened a huge opportunity for us," President Yoon said during the 24th public livelihood discussion in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, on Tuesday.

"We will foster North Chungcheong into a leading base for the bio industry," he said, adding that the existing advanced medical complex in Osong, North Chungcheong will be fostered into the Korean equivalent of the "Boston cluster" where hundreds of academic institutions and startups have been established for bio research.

The bio industry is no longer a field confined to traditional players but one that tech companies are also increasingly tapping into, with Google and Microsoft, for example, making forays into the industry armed with AI tools that are expected to accelerate drug development.

Yoon pledged to expand support for a "K-bio square" in the city of Cheongju to accommodate not only bio firms and institutions but also related accounting and legal services. It is expected to play a central role in the expansion of the Osong complex into a bio cluster that will generate an added value of 2.1 trillion won and 29,000 jobs, according to the government.

North Chungcheong's bio industry amounted to 22.2 trillion won as of 2022, ranking third within Korea after Seoul and Gyeonggi.

The government will also set up a platform offering researchers and bio phamaceutical firms easy access to data for R&D projects. Additional improvements include the development of automated manufacturing lines for bio pharmaceuticals that will help make artificial cells and bio materials quickly and cost-efficiently.

It also will support R&D projects dedicated to securing core technology that will solve a diverse range of problems facing humankind related to climate change, food shortages and contagious diseases. Personalized treatment for illnesses like cancer and incurable afflictions will also get a boost from AI-powered bio projects.

The government also said it will support R&D projects by small component and equipment companies with up to 300 billion won through 2030.

The global biopharmaceutical industry is expected to expand to $4 trillion won by 2035 from $2 trillion in 2021, according to the Industry Ministry.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]