Connecting Medical and Industrial Stars through Bio Starlink... Promoting Technology Commercialization

Korea Bio Association-Samsung Seoul Hospital
2023 Technology Commercialization Open Seminar

The Korea Bio Association is launching the 'Bio Starlink' program to connect the medical community and industry, aiming to promote the technology commercialization of bio companies.

On the 23rd, at the Sofitel Ambassador Hotel in Songpa-gu, Seoul, the '2023 Technology Commercialization Open Seminar' took place.
[Photo by Lee Myunghwan]

On the 23rd, Shin Gwang-min, director of the Bio Association, introduced the Bio Starlink program at the '2023 Technology Commercialization Open Seminar' held at the Sofitel Ambassador Hotel in Songpa-gu, Seoul, stating that "the bio industry is a technology-based business that inevitably requires a long period and high costs compared to other industries."

Previously, the Bio Association and Samsung Seoul Hospital signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in June last year to collaborate on technology commercialization in the bio-health sector between industry and hospitals. This seminar was organized to introduce this year's support program plans and specific cooperation and support details. The Bio Association explained that the goal is to promote practical cooperation between companies and medical institutions through this.

According to Director Shin, due to the recent global economic downturn and cooling of the financial market, the scale of investment in the domestic bio industry has steadily decreased. Investment in the bio and medical sectors last year dropped by 34% compared to the previous year. Investment in the first quarter of this year also decreased by 62% compared to the same period last year.

Another characteristic is that the majority of domestic bio companies are small and medium-sized venture businesses. As of last year, over 90% of domestic bio companies had fewer than 300 employees. Due to the industry’s nature, which requires a long period for research and development (R&D), 52% of all companies were either pre-revenue or had not reached the break-even point. Even when reaching the clinical stage, many face difficulties due to a lack of opportunities such as consulting. This is because cooperation between domestic bio companies and research institutions mainly remains at the experimental and basic research stages.

As the need for support in the bio industry emerged, the Bio Association signed an MOU with Samsung Seoul Hospital to discover bio companies and cooperate to promote technology commercialization. Specifically, they established the 'Bio Starlink' program, an industry-hospital cooperation linkage system, to support the creation of technology commercialization outcomes that meet clinical demands while having high business potential. The program name 'Starlink' signifies discovering stars in the medical and bio industries and connecting them to promote technology commercialization.

Companies selected for the Bio Star program receive support in areas such as technology licensing, commercialization development, R&D-clinical linkage, and joint patent creation. In last year’s recruitment for Bio Star companies, a total of 14 companies applied, including six new drug developers and eight medical device companies. Participants in the program achieved results such as four confidentiality agreements (CDA) and one MOU signing.

Director Shin said, "It is difficult for individual companies to knock on the door for cooperation with hospitals," adding, "We will thoroughly prepare so that participating companies can quickly achieve cooperation."

Recruitment for companies to participate in this year’s Bio Star program will be held from the 26th of this month until the 21st of next month.