‘Bio Korea 2025’ Attracts Some 700 Company Exhibitors from 55 Countries

Vice Minister Park Min-soo of the Ministry of Health and Welfare delivers his commemorative speech at an opening ceremony for Bio Korea 2025 at COEX in Seoul on May 5. (Photos: MOHW)

Bio Korea International Convention 2025 (Bio Korea 2025) opened for a three-day run at COEX in Seoul on May 5, with some 7,000 bio companies from 55 countries participating.

Bio Korea 2025, hosted by Chungcheongbuk-do and Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), is the 20th rendition. The event took place under the theme “Innovation, Collaboration, Working Together for the Future of Bio.”

Three hundred and twenty-three companies from 20 countries, including Celltrion, ST Pharm, Yuhan, ABL Bio, Johnson & Johnson, Amgen and Lonza, set up 429 booths. Business partnerships that took place until May 9 were attended by overseas global pharmaceutical companies, including Amgen, Johnson & Johnson, MSD, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer, Insilico Medicine, Novo Nordisk, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, Roche and Takeda Pharmaceuticals as well as Korea’s representative companies, including Celltrion, ST Pharm and SK Bioscience.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said the number of partnering booths has increased from 56 last year to 68 this year to reflect Korean and foreign companies’ demand.

A partnering reception for networking participants has been inaugurated.

Alex Zhavoronkov, founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, delivered a keynote speech, looking back at the trances of Bio Korea and exploring the direction of its future.

Zhavoronkov spoke about AI’s role and importance in the bio health industry, innovative experiences through global cooperation and the current status and outlook of AI-based new medicine development.

A poster to promote Bio Korea 2025.

In an opening speech, Chungcheongbuk-do Gov. Kim Young-hwan said, “Chungcheongbuk-do will lead a watershed in the Korean bio industry by setting up ‘K-bio Square’ based on global cooperation and we will make the province a global bio hub of global attention in cooperation with the United States and Japan.”

The portion of foreign participants stands at 47 percent and pre-matching cases have surged 29 percent compared to last year.

In his commemorative speech, Vice Minister Park Min-soo of the Ministry and Health and Welfare, said, “Korea will strive to develop bio innovation technology and build a global cooperation ecosystem through the government’s 1 trillion won R&D support, raising of a K-bio vaccine fund, expanding of export support, specialized manpower development and regulatory reform to make Korea a global bio-health center.

The ”Rising Pavilion,” accommodating Korean companies with excellent technologies, has made its debut at Bio Korea 2025.

At the pavilion, 24 companies, mostly ones with pharmaceutical-bio and digital health care, displayed the latest innovative technologies and items.

Among the participants were Neurive, VPIX Medical, Emocog, Yipcells, Stemden and Aulbio.

The conference had 14 sessions under three themes — innovation bio technology, bio convergence technology and technology business.

It introduced new bio technologies through technology convergence, such as space bio, brain-computer interface (BCI) and discussed global buyer governance for collaboration among global pharmaceutical companies and open innovation.

Global institutions, including the Ministry of Investment Saudi Arabia (MISA), U.S. and UK overseas venture capitals, JLABS and U.S.

CIC as well as investors participated in the Invest Fair and explored ways of entering overseas markets and possibility of connecting investments.

MISA, the UK Department for Business and Trade, Solasta Ventures and Bain Capital participated in an investment explanation session designed to explore the growth potential of the Korean bio and health industries and presented their global investment strategies.