“Regenerative medicine will become one of the core values that determine the future of Korea.”

Yoo Kyung-man_유경만, head of the Science and Technology Strategy Institute,_{과학기술전략연구소}made the prediction at a public hearing to revitalize regenerative medicine at the Westin Chosun Hotel Thursday.

"Advanced regenerative medical technology is the key to realizing the public’s health and welfare and national economic development," Yoo said. "The importance of healthcare is growing as a means of improving the quality of life in this era of population aging and swelling medical bills.”

Noting that the world is actively investing to preempt advanced regenerative medical technology and market, Yoo said, "By 2015, the global advanced regenerative medicine market has grown to $13.8 billion and will expand at an annual average growth rate of 23.7 percent to $49.4 billion by 2021.”

Yoo Kyung-man, head of the Science and Technology Strategy Institute, stresses the importance of regenerative medicine, during a public at the Westin Chosun Hotel, downtown Seoul, Thursday.

Despite anticipative investment in advanced regenerative medicine, Korea is in danger of losing global leadership due to the gap with leading countries in basic source and commercialization-related technology.

"Strategic planning is needed to promote the technological innovation of the nation’s high-tech regenerative medicine and sustainable growth of related industries,” Yoo said. Particularly important are diversification strategies such as convergence technology products that incorporate diverse technologies.

According to him, the domestic investment in adult stem cell research accounted for more than half of the total in 2014, but those in the studies of embryonic stem cells and dedifferentiated stem cells were less than 20 percent of the total, respectively.

"Domestic stem cell therapy products are concentrated in the research field of adult stem cell therapy. Although we are expanding the infrastructure to revitalize regenerative medicine, it is still insufficient. We must continuously increase the investment scale,” he urged.

Yoo agreed that it’s necessary to create a research ecosystem where companies and researchers can cooperate so that they can commercialize results of academic research to realize the relief of rare, inveterate patients at an early date.

"The government should raise the approval of the researcher-led clinical trials, which accounted for only 22.2 percent of the total approvals in Korea as of 2015, to the level of developed countries such as the United States and France.”

He also emphasized that application and development research for spreading the results of basic research should be done together, and that commercialization is as important as producing results in basic research.

"The Ministry of Health and Welfare_{보건복지부} must include these points in its second project to support regenerative medicine that starts in 2019,” Yoo said.

The second project will provide 501.4 billion won ($446.8 million) for 333 projects for seven years from 2019.

The total breaks down into cell therapy technology (219.9 billion won, 135 tasks), gene therapy technology (62.1 billion won, 39 tasks), tissue engineering therapy technology (119.5 billion won, 72 tasks), and regenerative medicine-based technology (99.9 billion won, 87 tasks).

cks@docdocdoc.co.kr

<© Korea Biomedical Review, All rights reserved.>