A Platform for Domestic Pharmaceutical and Bio 'Open Innovation' Collaboration to Be Established

December 5 'KPBMA Open Innovation Plaza' Held
Pharmaceutical Bio Association Also Promotes Open Innovation Platform Establishment

Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association building. [Photo by Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] A venue will be provided to promote the technology commercialization of promising pipelines held by pharmaceutical and bio companies and to activate open innovation.

The Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association announced on the 9th that it will hold the '2022 KPBMA Open Innovation Plaza' at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul on the 5th of next month.

The association is fully opening its doors and accepting pre-registrations until the 14th of this month from all domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies and bio ventures wishing to participate in excellent pipeline technology presentations and business partnering events, regardless of membership status. After the pre-registration deadline, companies selected to present outstanding pipeline technologies will be given the opportunity to introduce their pipelines to event participants for 20 minutes. One-on-one partnering will also be conducted separately.

To activate open innovation, the association plans not to hold a single event but to declare the establishment of the 'Pharmaceutical and Bio Open Innovation Platform (tentative name)' on the day, which will serve as a hub for sustainable technology commercialization in the future.

This platform will be created as an open innovation platform encompassing the major new drug development pipelines of domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies and bio ventures. It will build a pipeline platform that companies can freely browse and post on at any time to share information and accelerate industry-academia-research-government cooperation and joint commercialization. To this end, the association is currently extensively collecting major pipelines and plans to identify and collect pipelines from overseas pharmaceutical and bio companies and bio ventures in the future.

The event will open with a keynote speech by Chairman Won Hee-mok titled 'Open Innovation: The Shortcut to Success in the Pharmaceutical and Bio Industry.' This will be followed by presentations on 'Introduction and Operation Plan of the Pharmaceutical and Bio Open Innovation Platform' by the association's policy headquarters, 'Introduction and Operation Plan of the Investment Platform' by the Korea Innovative Medicines Consortium (KIMCo), and 'Successful Cases of AI Drug Development Joint Research' by the AI Drug Development Support Center. Afterward, presentations by outstanding pipeline companies and one-on-one partnering meetings will take place.

Chairman Won emphasized, "As the importance of the pharmaceutical and bio industry grows and the global market competition among countries intensifies, open innovation is not a choice but a necessity. Following the strengthening of domestic companies' entry into open innovation hubs such as the CIC (Cambridge Innovation Center) in Boston, USA, and Basel in Switzerland, Europe, this plaza event and the establishment of the open innovation platform will be an opportunity to expand the open innovation ecosystem of the domestic pharmaceutical and bio industry."