Government Unveils a Blueprint for the Healthcare Industry
- Regdate2015-04-23 07:27
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Government Unveils a Blueprint for the Healthcare Industry
- The Ministry of Health and Welfare presents a policy vision for the healthcare industry at the ‘2015 Bio & Medical Korea’ held during Aug 8-10 at COEX convention center in Seoul -
The Ministry of Health and Welfare (Minister: Moon Hyung-pyo) announced the ‘Healthcare Industry Promotion Plan’ at the conference held at COEX center on April 8 as a part of events held during ‘Bio-Medical Korea’ week.
- The health industry, one of the government’s key national policy agenda, has been producing tangible results recently, such as successful medical exports and medical tourist attraction, and it has been gaining importance as a future growth engine.
Against this backdrop, the government held a conference to present policy direction of the healthcare industry so as to ensure every participant in the industry understands the general structure, shares the goal, and promotes collaboration.
- Although there were basic plan for each sub-sector such as medicine and medical devices, the plan is the first of its kind to present the policy direction of the whole healthcare industry.
Global healthcare industry amounts to 8 thousand trillion won in value and with convergence technologies such as IT, BT, and NT, the healthcare industry is expected to create jobs and high added values.
- The Ministry of Health and Welfare believes that Korea’s competitiveness in the healthcare industry is strong considering that Korea has the world’s top class medical personnel, technologies and infrastructure.
- Given that the developed countries, such as Japan, the UK and Singapore are striving hard to export their medical business models, it is high time for Korea to make an aggressive investment in order to gain a competitive edge in the global healthcare market and to created jobs and added values and to promote the health of humankind.
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(Japan) As a part of Abenomics, the Japanese government has been driving the globalization of its healthcare industry. To this end, it has been making necessary investments and improving the regulatory framework.
(UK) The British government invested 3.4 trillion won (18 percent of the whole R&D expenditure) in healthcare R&D during 2011 and 2012, and is trying to make inroads into the Middle East market via a dedicated public agency (Healthcare UK).
(Singapore) Singapore chose bio medicine as its future growth engine, and has been making intensive investments in life science R&D center (Biopolis) and biomedicine clusters. |
‘Healthcare Industry Promotion Plan’ is composed of five strategies. They are: 1) promoting areas where Korea has comparative edge, 2) accelerating R&D commercialization 3) creating new markets through convergence between industries and globalization, 4) building infrastructure for all stages involving healthcare, and 5) developing talents.
< Five Strategies for the Healthcare Industry Promotion>
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1) Based on excellent medical personnel, medical expertise, infrastructure and medical technologies, the government will develop areas where Korea can gain a comparative advantage.
- Overseas Market Entry: With the aim of ensuring 162 medical institutions enter overseas markets by 2017, the government will strengthen its cooperation with foreign governments and promote the export of medical packages in which medical services, medicines, medical devices and medical technologies are bundled together to create synergy effects. (As of 2013, 111 medical institutions have made inroads into overseas markets).
- Medical Tourists: Korea aims to attract 500 thousand medical tourists into Korea in 2017 alone. To this end, the government will ensure the safety of medical tourism by preventing any market disrupting behaviors and diversify marketing channels, while beefing up PR activities by branding Korean medicine.
- Blockbuster Drug: Korea aims to develop as least one blockbuster drug by 2017. The government will encourage Koran pharmaceuticals strengthen their R&D collaboration with global players and will create a policy fund to support domestic pharmaceuticals going overseas. (400 billion won in accumulation in 2015)
- Global Generics: Korea will increase the number of global generic drugs that are approved in the US and Europe from 3 as of 2013 to 12 by 2017. The government will simplify the register and approval process in foreign markets through government-level cooperation, and support Korean pharmaceuticals in their efforts to fight patent infringement suits.
2) Unlike already commercialized technologies, the government will accelerate the commercialization of new medical technology which holds a bright prospect of creating high added-value.
- Genome and Customized Treatment: Korea will develop at least 4 types of diagnosis and treatment each. To this end, the government will focus its support on diagnosis that could be commercialized at earlier stages as well as on developing bio-markers. It will also render support for developing genetic variation chips which include Korean genome information and disease prediction models.
- Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine: Korea will gain at least 2 overseas approvals by 2017. The government will support companies develop innovative technologies for the next-generation of medicine, such as using 3D printing technology in producing stem cells. The government will encourage the participation of mid and large sized companies through international joint research and technology assessment.
- Antibiotics: Korea will lay the foundation for developing blockbuster level treatments by 2017. The government will support the development of relevant technology, offer financial support for clinical and non-clinical trials of candidates conducted at home and abroad and upgrade the manufacturing infrastructure of bio-medicine with the focus on state-of-the-art medical clusters.
- High-tech Medical Devices: Korea aims to advance source technology of high risk medical devices to clinical stages (two cases) by 2017. To this end, the government will identify promising technologies and support them throughout all stages from clinical stage to market entry.
- Technology Licensing Office (TLO), a Dedicated Organization for Medical Technology: Korea will increase the number of technology transfer by TLO from the current 25 to 150 by 2017. To this end, the government will cultivate professionals by running medical technology management school, identify promising technology and do market analysis to support global licensing efforts.
3) The government will create new markets by developing new sales channels in overseas markets and by projecting the future after taking into account convergence between industries and the population aging, etc.
- Healthcare Product Export: Korea aims to export 2 pharmaceutical medical clusters. To this end, the government will offer support throughout the whole stages, including offering procurement information, funding overseas clinical trial expenses and offering help for local dispute settlement.
- Beauty Industry including Cosmetics: Korea aims to increase the sales revenue of beauty and cosmetics products up to 31 trillion won by 2017 from 23 trillion won as of 2013. To this end, the government will support the efforts to develop global cosmetic brands, set up a support center for cosmetic product exports, conduct promotion activities such as holding a ‘K-beauty fair’ and improve regulatory framework to promote the beauty industry.
- Botanical Drugs: Korea aims to transfer at least 2 related technologies overseas by 2017. To this end, the government will strengthen pharmaceutical product quality control and capabilities, and set up infrastructure for developing life resources.
- Healthy Aging Industry: Korea aims to grow domestic market to 20 trillion won by 2017 from 14 trillion won as of 2013. In order to do so, the government will develop healthy aging service models and building healthy aging clusters that incorporate regional characteristics.
4) The government will strengthen the infrastructures of the healthcare industry and complete building platforms for all stages involving healthcare by increasing the connectivity between different medical infrastructures.
- Biobank: Korea aims to increase the number of projects based on biobank data from around 1,000 in 2013 to over 2,000 by 2017. To this end, the government will collect clinical data standardized by disease and compile integrated Omics data.
*Omics data: Data massively produced and compiled by analyzing genome, proteome and other human derived biomedical resources.
- Healthcare Big Data: Korea aims to build an open data platform by 2017. The government will build a network of information systems and lay legal and regulatory frameworks to protect and manage private information.
* Building a network of information systems (e.g.): Connecting the information systems of National Health Insurance Service, Health Insurance Review and Assessment, National Center for Disease Prevention & Control, and National Cancer Center.
- High-tech Medical Clusters: Korea will increase the number of R&D centers located in medical clusters from 28 as of 2013 to 200 by 2017. The government will set up one-stop clinical trial support centers and attract renowned R&D centers at home and abroad to these clusters so as to transform them into the world’s best.
- Research-oriented Hospitals: Korea aims to expand the share of R&D spending as a share of revenue from 5 percent as of 2013 to 10 percent by 2017. To this end, the government will make preemptive investment in R&D in a form of increased financial support to promote commercialization of R&D and at the same time offer packaged support for key essential services such as collaborative study on major diseases and human resource training.
- Clinical Trials: Korea aims to become the global top 7 by 2017 in terms of clinical trial competitiveness (as of 2013, Korea ranks the global top 10). The government will cultivate professionals, support the development of new technology for clinical trials and augment relevant infrastructures including the set-up of a ‘global clinical trial innovation center.’
- Healthcare Venture-Startups: Korea aims to support 40 venture-startups by 2017. To this end, the government will leverage the infrastructure of high-tech medical clusters to build healthcare venture-startup platforms and render financial support for companies developing early-stage technologies.
5) The government will nurture capable individuals who will lead the future healthcare industry.
- Specialized Generalists: As of 2013, it is anticipated that around 20 thousand specialized generalists will be required additionally by 2017. Thus, the government will formulate plans to systemically develop high-potential individuals with knowledge in convergence and strengthen cooperation with relevant agencies and institutions.
- Global Talents: Korea aims to increase the number of medical personnel stationed overseas from 75 in 2013 to 500 in 2017 alone. The government will run educational programs for medical staff working overseas including nurses and medical interpreters. In addition, the government will expand global expert training programs and promote the global collaborative network for healthcare to nurture global talents.
This plan is a basic design of how the healthcare industry will develop and what the policy priorities are. Concrete timeline and budget allocation for each area will be determined in line with relevant inter-agency level plans such as ‘Future Strategy for Bid-med.’
An official of the Ministry of Health and Welfare emphasized the significance of the plan by saying, “The ‘Healthcare Industry Promotion Plan’ is a testament to the firm determination of the Ministry as it voluntarily set up the goals and painted a big picture under which it plans to work systemically.”
[ENG]_[4.7]Health_Industry_Blueprint[3].docx