Stem cell and genetic drugs to dominate South Korea's economy
Seoul (AsiaNews) - South Korea plans to invest US$ 302 million in its bio industry, including stem cell research and genetic drugs. According to the authorities, this sector is going to be the government's flagship policy.
At present, South Korea ranks second in terms of terms of stem cell drug development projects with 40 against 136 in the United States.
On Tuesday, the government announced it was making stem cell and genetic drugs its star exports and that it would expand state-led investment to accelerate clinical trials and commercialisation.
The world's bio industry was worth US.4 trillion last year, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said. This is estimated to grow to US$ 2.6 trillion in 2024.
Last year, South Korea's three largest export industries - semiconductor, petrochemical and automobiles - were worth US$ 1.6 trillion for the nation, but their growth is expected to slow after 2024.
Between now and then, various government ministries plan spend more to advance the entire process, from R&D to production to export infrastructure.
"The bio industry [including biopharmaceutical and bio health care] is an extremely crucial area for Korea," said Lee Jin-kyu, head of the R&D policy division at the Science Ministry. "The industry is estimated to grow into a huge market in the next decade".
Being first to commercialise biopharmaceutical drugs is the most urgent task for the government, said the Science Ministry. For South Korea, this is nothing new.
In 2005, Hwang Woo-suk, once described as the "pioneer in human cloning" and a national hero, fell out of favour after the international scientific community and Seoul National University released findings on his human stem cells research indicating that his data had been tampered to show successful cloning of healthy cells from patients suffering from currently incurable diseases.
The results of his research were published in two issues of the US scientific journal Science. In them, the researcher had claimed that he had created stem cell lines with the cloning of human embryos.
In 2006, South Korea stopped his stem cell research and started legal proceedings against him the following year. In 2008, the 56-year-old veterinary applied to resume research on human stem cells, but was turned down by the South Korean government.
He claimed that stem cells would have a positive effect in the treatment of diseases such as stroke, Alzheimer and Parkinson. As a vet, he is currently into dog cloning.
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