This year, the scale of bio technology exports has exceeded KRW 20 trillion. A series of large deals centered on domestic bio platform technologies has led to the largest volume on record.

According to the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association on the 28th, the pharmaceutical and bio industry’s technology export volume this year, excluding some undisclosed contracts, was tallied at approximately USD 1.453 billion (about KRW 21 trillion). This represents an increase of around 162% compared to last year (USD 540 million).

This year’s technology exports were driven by bio platform technologies. Last month, ABL Bio exported its “Grabody-B” technology to global pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly in a deal worth up to KRW 3.8 trillion, enabled by a platform technology that can cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB), a dense barrier that prevents foreign substances from entering the brain. In April this year, the company also exported the same technology to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for USD 3.02 billion (about KRW 4.1 trillion). An official from the bio industry stated, “Platform technology can be licensed out to multiple partners as long as it is applied to different diseases, so it can be seen as a highly cost-effective technology.”

In the area of new drug candidates, domestic drug development company ADEL this month signed a technology export agreement worth USD 1.04 billion (about KRW 1.528 trillion) with Sanofi for “ADEL-Y01,” an Alzheimer’s disease treatment candidate. In addition, various companies such as ABL Bio, Aimed Bio, and OliX have exported new drug candidates as technology.

An industry official said, “Global pharmaceutical companies’ interest in Korean bio companies is growing,” adding, “However, Korea’s bio ecosystem can only be sustainable if bio companies do not stop at technology export achievements but establish a virtuous cycle structure by reinvesting their proceeds.”

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