바이오스펙테이터

by Sungmin Kim

Made MOU with following 4 organizations KOTRA, KHIDI, KOREABIO, KPBMA

Announcing a plan to promote domestic R&D, Astrazeneca is funding $210 million in domestic biopharma companies over the next five years. Earlier in June, Chairman of Astrazeneca, Leif Johansson, announced at the Sweden-Korea Business Summit in Stockholm that he would invest about $630 million in South Korea for five years from 2020 to 2024. At that time, they announced investing of the funds in tangible and intangible assets such as research and development, better access to innovative healthcare and higher quality of employment, and they announced a detailed implementation plan this time.

On the 18th, Astrazeneca announced this plan during the meeting for a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with four organizations, namely the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), Korea Health Industry Development Industry (KHIDI), Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization (KoreaBio), Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association (KPBMA). The MOU was held at the Korea-Sweden Business Summit in Seoul where Minister of Health and Welfare, Park Neung-hoo, and Minister of Industry and Energy, Sung Yoon-mo attended.

Astrazeneca and their agencies plan to cooperate in four areas: R&D, production cooperation and win-win growth, global market entry, and biohealth ecosystem establishment.

Under the latest R&D plan, Astrazeneca will work with those four organizations that have joined the MOU to strengthen the ongoing portfolio of clinical and pre-clinical research and expand open innovation to develop new drugs in the field of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, respiratory diseases, and cancer.

In addition, the four organizations participated in the MOU said they will help local companies explore new opportunities to collaborate in manufacturing, production and quality control technologies of finished medicinal products and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) in Korea and overseas.

Astrazeneca and four other agencies will use Astrazeneca’s worldwide network of healthcare innovation herb to promote innovation and exports in the local bio-health sector, as well as cooperation in education programs to develop talent with local companies and researchers, corporate discovering activities and the use of artificial intelligence, which is critical for new drug development.

“Through the MOU, we hope we can strengthen innovation in the Korean bio-health industry and ultimately contribute to the health and well-being of Korean society," said Leif Johansson, Astrazeneca Chairman.

Kim Sang-pyo, CEO of Astrazeneca Korea, said, "We are pleased to have forged cooperation to contribute to the growth of the local bio-health industry by utilizing Astrazeneca’s resources, know-how and global networks with the support of the government’s valuable leadership."

Lee Eui-kyung, head director of Astrazeneca Korea, said "Astrazeneca has been making continuous investments in Korean bio and is expanding its scale, and it is meaningful that it revealed detailed cooperation plans through this MOU".