S. Korea to invest over 500 billion won in biotech next year

South Korea will invest 520 billion won in biotechnology next year to boost its development of treatment and vaccines for COVID-19.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said the figure represents a 24.9 percent hike from 2020.

Of that amount, 31.7 billion won will go to COVID-19 treatment and vaccine development and 10.2 billion won for technology to respond to new infectious diseases.

Some of it will also go to research into new core biotech industries, such as 71 billion won to develop a new medicine, 61.8 billion won in medical devices, and 31.1 billion won in regenerative medicine to strengthen research in stem cell technology and others.

The medical devices to be developed targets the elderly and the disabled.

The ministry said it also plans to invest 51.3 billion won to acquire next-generation biotech, such as single-cell analysis.

Last month, 36 South Korean biotech and pharmaceutical companies announced that they invest a combined 10 trillion won by 2023 to hone their competitiveness and technological capabilities.

The firms include Samsung Biologics Co. and Celltrion Inc., will
The government intends to spend a total of 2.2 trillion won on developing new medicine until 2030.