“My expertise of connecting with society by way of the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization (Korea BIO) was very beneficial in my life. I’m at all times grateful to the workers I’ve labored with on the Korea BIO. I wish to thank our member firms and all those that love the biotech trade.”
Seo Jeong-sun, who stepped down from Korea BIO president on Wednesday, stated this and different remarks at a video interview printed on Korea BIO’s YouTube channel on Tuesday.
In the video, Seo appeared again on Korea BIO’s achievements in the previous decade and suggested on the path the nation’s biotech trade ought to go.
In 2000, Seo contributed to the Korea Bio Venture Association’s basis, now built-in in Korea BIO. “At the time, six firms joined efforts to ascertain the bio enterprise affiliation and expressed their opinions. Since 2015, I’ve been serving as Korea BIO’s president for six years,” Seo stated.
The first 4 years of Korea BIO was when the group developed its experience and constructed solidarity amongst member firms, and thought the best way to execute state initiatives effectively, Seo recalled.
For the following six years, Korea BIO offered “tough sketches” for the native biotech trade and advised necessary enterprise subjects, he stated.
Korea BIO’s different function is to mediate between the “top-down” coverage and the “bottom-up” efforts of the non-public biotech sector.
Seo stated the trade advocacy group’s function was significantly necessary in the Korean biotech trade.
“Once, Korea BIO joined a authorities’s assembly for export methods the place large trade teams from vehicle and petrochemical companies have been additionally in,” he stated. “Our group’s function was to collect opinions from member firms when the federal government carried out its coverage and to maintain tempo with the federal government’s stance.”
Comparing the U.S. biotech trade with that of Korea, Seo emphasised that the federal government’s deregulation was essential to advance the biotech sector.
“The U.S. biotech trade is making an enormous footprint, which is sort of completely different from the development of the Korean biotech sector. The U.S. trade is pushed by highly effective non-public gamers with a powerful bottom-up drive,” Seo stated.
In distinction, the Korean sector is essentially reliant on the federal government’s top-down coverage, he added.
“Unless the federal government eases laws, our trade can not develop.”
Seo refuted some folks’s declare that native biotech shares have been in a bubble.
He admitted that the home biotech sector started with the tech bubble. Since then, rosy outlooks on the human genome venture have hardly ever yielded actual returns, he stated. Given the biotech trade’s nature, folks can assume that it takes a really very long time to have a return (revenue), he stated.
However, contemplating the rise of the aged inhabitants, one of many traits of the twenty first century, the nation can not remedy social points with out investing in the Fourth Industrial Revolution in drugs, reminiscent of data drugs and digital transformation, Seo famous.
“In the previous, the biotech trade meant a sector the place a bubble didn’t return as a revenue. But now, it definitely wants funding, and the federal government ought to assist the trade till it reaches a sure stage,” he stated.
According to Seo, as Korean biotech companies are likely to develop too quickly and startups strive solely preliminary public providing to appreciate income, buyers may endure difficulties.
To scale back such issues, individuals who have already succeeded in the sphere ought to assist enterprise firms, he stated.
Seo praised the standard of Korea’s healthcare service.
“The stage of Korean drugs is identical as that of the U.S. We ought to thank those that work in the Korean medical sector,” he stated.
Korean docs’ information isn’t any completely different from American physicians, and Korea’s IT energy provides the nation a aggressive edge to advance data drugs, he emphasised.
Seo predicted that if the federal government and the medical group combine IT and healthcare companies, data drugs shall be an awesome asset for Korea in the longer term.
“I imagine there’s a hope in Korea’s biotech trade and enterprise firms’ spirit of risk-taking,” he stated.
After the Korea BIO’s basic assembly on Wednesday, Samsung Bioepis President Koh Han-seung took workplace as Korea BIO’s subsequent president.
