‘Korea’s bio-pharmaceutical technology still not competitive in many areas’
Experts believe Korean biopharmaceutical technology’s competitiveness is still inferior to advanced pharmaceutical countries in many areas, a recent survey has shown.
Experts rated domestic biopharmaceutical technology's competitiveness as mediocre, giving an average of 5.8 points on a 9-point basis.
The respondents said that Korea possesses the highest technology in antibody drugs, including biosimilars, with a score of 7.1 points. In contrast, gene therapy products, such as gene therapy rated lowest with 4.2 points.
The survey said that although Korea has the experience and production capabilities through the development of generics and biosimilars, it lacks experience in developing innovative new drugs. They stressed it is necessary to improve target discovery capabilities, such as finding candidate substances and developing original technologies.
The Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) conducted the opinion poll using a Delphi method, a structured communication technique developed as a systematic method that relies on a panel of experts.
The poll showed that Korea falls behind in size and appropriateness of distribution with a score of fewer than 5 points, with many evaluating that private R&D investment was also insufficient.
Respondents stressed that the local biopharmaceutical industry's low competitiveness compared to leading countries was due to the absence of strategic R&D, professional manpower, government R&D investment, and cooperation between local and foreign research institutes.
According to the KHIDI, the survey responses were in line with a research that scored national biopharmaceutical technology competitiveness through patent analysis.
The patent impact index score (PII), which indicates the technology's quality, was 0.6 for cell therapy, 1.3 for vaccines, 0.4 for gene therapy, and 0.6 for antibody drugs. The results showed that the nation ranked below the standard value of 1 for all other categories showing poor technology level asides from vaccines.
In the technology strength (TS) index ranking, which represents the qualitative and quantitative level of technology, Korea was fourth in cell therapy products (16.6), sixth in gene therapy products (5.4), ninth in antibody drugs (202.5), and 10th in vaccines (124.5), confirming that the country’s technological prowess was weak compared to advanced countries in both quality and quantity.
To strengthen technological competitiveness, experts stressed that the government should expand R&D investment and focus on selected fields, nurture professional manpower, support policy for expanding private R&D investment, and enhance cooperation among overseas research institutes.
Gloss