Pohang City Accelerates as a Global New Drug Development Hub... Secures 25.3 Billion KRW in National Funding

Selected for the Ministry of Science and ICT Contest 'Establishment of a Drug Design Platform Utilizing Large Equipment'

Mayor Lee Gang-deok, "Pohang is the Optimal Location for Fostering National Strategic Industry Biohealth"

Pohang City has been finally selected in the Ministry of Science and ICT’s bio and medical technology development public project in the field of ‘Establishment of a New Drug Design Platform Utilizing Large Equipment,’ securing 25.3 billion KRW in national funding.

Cell Membrane Protein Research Institute.

This project is a public contest promoted by the Ministry of Science and ICT to strengthen national science and technology competitiveness and support the development of future promising bio-technology core technologies. Pohang City was selected in the ‘Establishment of a New Drug Design Platform Utilizing Large Equipment’ field and plans to invest a total of 31.32 billion KRW (25.32 billion KRW in national funds) from this year until 2028.

Large equipment refers to expensive advanced research equipment and facilities such as synchrotron radiation accelerators and cryo-electron microscopes (Cryo-EM). In particular, the cryo-electron microscope established at the Pohang Membrane Protein Research Institute has attracted attention as a core facility for new drug development, being directly utilized for vaccine and therapeutic development through three-dimensional structural analysis of coronavirus proteins.

Especially, Pohang City has been building advanced infrastructure for new drug development, starting with the completion of the 4th generation synchrotron radiation accelerator in 2016 and the establishment of the ‘Membrane Protein Research Institute’ in 2019. In 2022, it was selected for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s ‘Structure-based Vaccine Technology Commercialization System Formation’ public project, introducing the nation’s first enterprise-exclusive cryo-electron microscope. Based on this, Pohang achieved the result of being finally selected for this large equipment utilization new drug design platform establishment contest.

Through this public project selection, Pohang City plans to promote projects over the next five years at the Membrane Protein Research Institute located in the Pohang Convergence Technology Industrial Complex, including ▲technology integration and advancement using large equipment and molecular design technology ▲rapid and standardized structural determination of disease proteins for new drug development ▲establishment and operation of a regional research cooperation hub to support enterprises ▲building an international cooperation global network through collaboration among industry, academia, and research institutes.

Lee Kang-deok, Mayor of Pohang, attending the '4th Accelerator-Based New Drug Development International Symposium' held in 2022.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok said, “Pohang is the optimal place to foster the bio-health industry, a national strategic industry, as it has abundant related research infrastructure such as the nation’s only 3rd and 4th generation synchrotron radiation accelerators and the Membrane Protein Research Institute.” He added, “We will make every effort to be designated as a bio-specialized complex to be announced in the future and establish Pohang as a representative bio-health mecca of the Republic of Korea.”