Led by the growth of biomedicine sector.
For the first time, the total output of South Korea’s biotech industry topped 10 trillion won (US$9 billion) in 2017. This was largely led by the growth of the biomedicine sector.
According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the combined output of 984 biotech firms in South Korea reached 10.13 trillion won (US$9.11 billion) in 2017. The figure represented an increase of 9.3 percent from a year ago. The industry’s output has grown at an annual average of 7.8 percent for the past five years.
The output of the biomedicine sector rose 9.5 percent year on year and reached 3.85 trillion won (US$3.46 billion). In that sector, therapeutic antibody and cytokine preparation production totaled 1.24 trillion won (US$1.11 billion) with year-on-year growth of 31.9 percent, while blood product and vaccine production rose 21.6 percent and 4.2 percent to 450 billion won (US$405 million) and 582.7 billion won (US$524 million), respectively.
The output of the bio-service sector jumped 39.3 percent to 813.6 billion won (US$732 million), led by consignment production and agent services, which rose 64.3 percent, and bio-analysis, bio-diagnosis and service exports, which grew 73.4 percent.
In 2017, the total investment in the industry was 2.22 trillion won (US$1.99 billion), up 8.1 percent from a year earlier. R&D spending and facility investment rose 6.1 percent and 12.8 percent, respectively. The number of companies in the industry investing at least 50 billion won (US$45 million) in R&D rose from four to seven. [APBN]
Source: BusinessKorea