[Reporter’s Notebook] K-Bio in the Global Spotlight: Now Is the Time to Prove It

"This is a Korean event, right? There are so many people here that you can't get in anyway."

On the 14th (local time), during the ongoing JP Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPMHC), such comments were frequently heard among people passing by the entrance to the 'Korea Night' event held at The Howard Hotel in San Francisco, USA. Korea Night is a global networking event hosted by the Korea Bio Association.

This year's event attracted a large number of key stakeholders from North American, European, and Asian biotech companies, as well as global pharmaceutical and investment firms. Although the venue could accommodate about 650 people for a standing reception, more than 1,500 people had pre-registered to attend. Korea Night has now completely transformed from simply being a gathering place for Koreans abroad to becoming a destination where the global industry seeks out Korea.

On the 14th (local time), during the ongoing JP Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPMHC), the 'Korea Night' event held at The Howard Hotel in San Francisco, USA, was filled with attendees. Korea Bio Association

This atmosphere was not limited to Korea Night alone. Throughout the JPMHC, perceptions of Korean companies shifted from simply confirming their existence-"Did Korea have companies like this?"-to verifying and evaluating their concrete competitiveness in areas such as clinical trials and commercialization. Questions were raised about "What clinical data do you have?", "What are the target indications?", and "How reproducible and scalable is your platform technology?"

Lee Seulgi, CEO of D&D Pharmatech, who was interviewed on-site at JPMHC, said, "It felt as if there was special attention being paid to Korean biotech," adding, "Perhaps due to recent trends in the stock market, even global institutional investors who previously had little interest in Korean biotech are now showing interest, which is a particularly significant change."

However, this change in status does not immediately translate into competitiveness in new drug development. Lee Sanghoon, CEO of ABL Bio, whom we met at JPMHC, noted, "If Western big pharma had previously been actively seeking out China, there is now a perception at JPMHC that 'Korea comes after China.' However, the barriers to advancing Korean biotech in terms of capital and clinical sophistication remain high."

Because large-scale late-stage clinical trials, involving hundreds of patients-which are preferred by big pharma-are still insufficient among Korean biotech firms, Korea continues to be evaluated primarily for its "early-stage technology." In technology transfer agreements, candidate substances in preclinical or Phase 1 stages are not highly valued.

Lee stated, "The ideal model is to generate revenue through technology transfer and then use those funds to push clinical development further toward commercialization. Korean companies need to move from 'early-stage technology' to 'clinical development and commercialization' in order to strengthen their negotiating power with big pharma."

The Korean pharmaceutical and biotech industry has built its fundamentals and capabilities through contract development and manufacturing (CDMO), represented by companies like Samsung Biologics and Celltrion, as well as through the biosimilar business. Now, leveraging accumulated regulatory experience and capital, the industry must take on the risks of new drug development and prove itself through clinical trials. The long line in front of Korea Night was merely another signal of a fresh start for K-Bio. The real competition begins now.