Seoul, Feb 9 (IANS) South Korea has the potential to significantly strengthen the competitiveness of its biohealth industry by leveraging rich, high-quality biodata through artificial intelligence (AI), a central bank report showed on Monday.
According to a report by the Bank of Korea (Bank of Korea) on measures to foster the advanced biohealth field, while South Korea lags behind developed countries in fields such as innovative new drugs and cutting-edge medical devices, the global market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 5% over the next five years due to factors such as the aging of the population.
From 2016 to 2023, the country ranked ninth in the world in terms of the number of biohealth patent applications filed in the United States, and fourth in all fields overall, Yonhap News reported.
“AI can shorten new drug development timelines by up to 50 percent, significantly reduce research and development costs, and create new markets,” the report said. “Under these circumstances, South Korea has a chance to overcome the limitations of the current industrial ecosystem and overtake developed countries.”
In particular, the country has health insurance and clinical data collected from 50 million people under a single national health insurance system, which the Bank of Korea noted is “extremely rare in the world and a national strategic resource in the AI era.”
To take advantage of these advantages, the central bank has proposed a national biodata approval system. Under this system, authorities conduct a preliminary review and approve the use of data only for research that meets public interest standards, and the government eases regulations for approved projects.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s biotech industry’s output in 2024 increased by nearly 10% year-on-year, despite persistent global trade uncertainties, according to industry data.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), citing a study by the Korea Biotechnology Industry Association (KoreaBIO), announced that the production value of the country’s biotechnology industry will reach 22.92 trillion won (US$15.7 billion) in 2024, up from 20.87 trillion won in 2023.
This figure marks a recovery from a 12% year-on-year decline in 2023 and signals new growth momentum for the sector.
—Ians
Na/
