The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Oh Young-joo, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of SMEs and Startups) announced that it held the '2nd Korea-Japan Bio-Ecosystem Roundtable' in Tokyo, Japan on the 20th, chaired by Minister Oh Young-joo.
Leading pharmaceutical and bio companies representing Korea and Japan participated in the event, which was held as a follow-up measure to the 'Bio-Venture Innovation Ecosystem Creation Plan' announced at the Ministerial Meeting on Strengthening Industrial Competitiveness on January 15.
On our side, representatives of six bio ventures that grew with the support of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, including Park Hyun-sook, CEO of Cell Bio, which was designated as an orphan drug by the European Medicines Agency last month, and Kim Young-ho, CEO of Edgene, which possesses unique gene scissors technology, attended the event. On the Japanese side, representatives of Fujimoto Shonan I-Park, as well as executives in charge of research and development and open innovation from Japan’s global big pharma companies Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Astellas Pharma, Sumitomo Pharma, and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, attended the event.
Participants shared the results of cooperation since the '1st Korea-Japan Bio Ecosystem Roundtable' held on May 10th last year, including the entry of eight bio-ventures into Shonan i-Park for overseas verification, the establishment of an integrated PR center (K-Startup@Bio) within Bio Japan ('24.10), the joint IR of Korean-Japanese bio-ventures targeting world-class VCs held in Boston ('24.12. 5), and the 'K-Bio Venture Partnering Conference' held to seek collaboration between 58 domestic bio-ventures and 21 Japanese pharmaceutical companies at Shonan i-Park ('25.1. 18).
Participants stated that new drug development is a long process that requires numerous experiments and verifications, but the possibility of failure is also very high, so division of labor and collaboration are important to increase the possibility of success in new drug development and reduce trial and error, and in particular, joint technology development based on division of labor is most important for achieving collaborative results in cutting-edge fields such as cell therapy, gene therapy, and the tumor microenvironment.
Minister Oh Young-joo said, “The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry itself is a global industry that transcends borders, and close cooperation in the future-oriented, cutting-edge biotechnology field will be a valuable asset for future generations of both countries.” He added, “In order for Korea and Japan to strengthen their global leadership in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector, we will not spare our support for corporate exchanges and cooperation, joint research and development, and joint fund creation that diversify and deepen biotechnology cooperation.”
Meanwhile, Minister Oh met with Keiko Oishi, Chairman of Cemic, Japan's largest CRO (clinical trial organization), that morning to discuss ways to build a partnership that combines the innovative ideas of Korean bio ventures with Cemic's advanced clinical trial capabilities, and attended the signing ceremony of an MOU for cooperation in the bio sector between the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency and Cemic.
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