Biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries will fuel future growth of the South Korean economy and it is time to focus more on human genome and DNA to ride on the advent of the boom in bio industries, the country’s largest conglomerate Samsung Group’s biopharmaceutical unit CEO said.

“Human genome and DNA have now become keywords and will lead a new industrial revolution,” said Samsung BioLogics Co. Chief Executive Kim Tae-han said on Wednesday during his lecture to Kyungpook National University students.

“The development of a cancer immunotherapy drug to treat melanoma demonstrates the progress in biopharmaceutical technology and it will not be long before we start seeing the development of an antibody drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease,” he said, adding that scientists were engaged with biologic drugs to look for a major breakthrough for patients with refractory disease.

Unlike other industries suffering from a downturn in the economy, the biotech industry enjoys a high growth rate and needs more skilled labor, Kim said. “As semiconductor and IT industries had led the Korean economy over the past 30 to 40 years, human genome and DNA will play a leading role in the economy,” Kim added.

He listed four “Up” factors behind the growth of the biopharmaceutical industry, such as fast aging population (Age-Up), patient growth (Disease-Up), continuous development in medical technology (Science Knowledge-Up) and increasing affordability and access to biologics (Wealth-Up). Reflecting these trends, Samsung in 2011 made a bold investment decision to build Samsung BioLogics Co.

The success of Samsung BioLogics was driven by Samsung’s know-how gained through experience in non-pharmaceutical sectors. Our expertise built from years of experience to install a clean room for semiconductor products and design large chemical plants enabled us to build our top quality bio-production plant in the shortest period of time with the minimum required investment capital,” he explained.

By Yoon Jin-ho

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]