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  • 기자명 Jung Hyun Ko
  • Tech & Bio
  • Published 2020.08.31 01:54

[100 Companies in Pangyo, the Silicon Valley in Asia] Bio-health, the industry with high future growth potential and employment effect Pangyo is the cluster of companies that will lead K-Defense and K

Pangyo Techno Valley, the place where innovative companies in the IT, BT, and NT fields create synergies with each other and a foothold to grow into a global company is made, has recently strengthened its reputation as the Silicon Valley in Asia. While the manufacturing industry is getting worse than ever due to the prolonged COVID-19 outbreak, companies like Naver, NCSOFT, and SK Biopharmaceuticals in Pangyo Techno Valley are having second golden era as they are combining AI, big data, and IoT technologies with products or services to make them non-face-to-face (untact), fit for the current situation. The global market is showing a particularly high interest in the bio-health industry of Korea and Pangyo.

Untact era and bio-health

Thebio-health industry is an industry that produces products or provides servicesfor the human body based on biotechnology and medicine/pharmaceuticals. Itincludes the manufacturing industry such as pharmaceuticals and medical devicesand the medical and health care service industry such as digital healthcareservice. Unlike other manufacturing and service industries, the bio-healthindustry is an industry where technology and capital are intensive, and theduration and cost of R&D determine the success or failure.

Theglobal bio-health market is expanding rapidly due to the aging population andincreasing health demand. Major developed countries are expanding investmentand improving related systems to take over the global bio-health market first.With policy innovation and preemptive investment, even late-starters like Koreacan seize the opportunity to emerge as a leader. Korea is strong enough tobecome a leader in the bio-health field. As of 2018, according to the data fromthe Ministry of Health and Welfare, the production capacity ofbiopharmaceuticals was the second largest in the world, and the export of newdrug technologies was 5.3 trillion won, an increase by four times from theprevious year. The exports of medicines and medical devices were also 14.4 billiondollars, up 19% from the previous year. The technology level of all industriesis 78% of the US, the country with the highest technology, and as for worldexport, ultrasound imaging equipment is ranked number one and dental implantsare ranked number five.

Basedon BT, Korea has made industrial development in various biotechnology and bio-industryfields such as chemistry, energy, food, and the environment in addition tomedicine and medical devices. According to the statistics of the domestic bio-industryreleased by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Bio, thesupply and demand for the bio-industry as of 2018 totaled about 12 trillionwon, an annual average increase of 6.6% over the past three years. The growthrate of the bio-industry over the past three years from 2016 to 2018 is showingtwice as high as the average growth rate of domestic real GDP of 2.9% over thesame period.

(Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash)

Pangyo, the place that increases the global growth potential of the bio-health industry

Thebio-health industry is one of the promising industries with great future growthpotential and employment effects. Economic research institutes like KoreaDevelopment Bank predicted that the growth rate of the bio-health industry by2030 will record 4.0%, which is higher than that of shipbuilding (2.9%) andautomobiles (1.5%). In addition, when production increased by one billion won,the employment effect of bio-health was 16.7 persons, which was more than twiceas high as all industry average (8.0 persons). In recent years, as Industry 4.0came, the bio-health industry is emerging as core competitiveness in providingICT-based products and services such as big data, AI, and IoT. In this respect,in Pangyo, a strategic base of the domestic bio-health industry, many companiesare already securing innovative BT competitiveness and realizing a sustainableindustrial ecosystem.

Accordingto the 2019 Pangyo Techno Valley Survey conducted by GBSA (Gyeonggido Business& Science Accelerator) to survey the status of Pangyo Techno Valleyresident companies, 65.9% of the 1,300 resident companies were in the IT field.This was followed by culture and arts (13,4%) and biotechnology (12.6%). Bio-health-relatedcompanies in Pangyo are diverse, ranging from large companies to mid-sized andSMEs, and start-up companies, and they have built close networks and innovativeecosystems for smooth cooperation.

The domestic bio-industry survey shows that the bio-industry,both the head office and the bio plants are mostly located in Seoul andGyeonggi-do. As of 2017, there were312 headquarters in Seoul and 320 bio plants and research institutes in the Gyeonggiarea. In Pangyo Techno Valley, there are many corporate research centers andheadquarters in pharmaceuticals and bio-health fields, including the InstitutPasteur Korea, which is carrying out a major role in drug re-creation andintermediary research for the development of COVID-19 treatment, Samjin PharmCentral Research Center, and Huons.

Recently, Huons concluded the contract for “Technology Transfer and Joint R&D for raloxifene and 10 New Substances with Proven COVID-19 and Virus Inhibitory Effect” with GBSA at its headquarters in Pangyo. It is also planning to start researching the customized formulation that is most effective for treatment. In the clinical council, Ajou University Medical Center, Korea University Ansan Hospital, Gyeonggi Medical Center, and GBSA will be participating.

(Photo by SKbioscience)

It is also building an ecosystem for win-win cooperation with innovative SMEs and startups, as well as large and medium-sized companies such as SK Biopharmaceuticals, SK Chemicals, and Handok. Among them, SK Biosciences received global attention by signing a three-party letter of intent (LOI) to cooperate with global pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and The Jenner Institute (Oxford University) to secure global supply and cooperate for the domestic supply of COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

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