Jeong Hyun KIMExecutive Director, E&Networks Venture Investment

Realizing importance of Bio industry as high-value and profit-generating industry, every country in the world, especially developed countries put a strategic priority on the promotion of adaptation research to biopharmaceutical products, medical devices as well as agricultural goods and foods.

Korea is not an exception of the global trend, and is dedicated to support bio industry. Determining one of New Growth Engine business to feed the nation in the future, the Government is pouring financial supports in the industry along with private sector to boost the platform research and the commercialization of novel technologies. Despite of its huge efforts, Korea as a whole is still trailing the global leader countries in high-end technologies except a few areas. Since the industry is expanding fast with new technologies emerging on a daily basis, Korea still has a good chance to become a world leader, if investments from both public and private sectors are facilitated and carefully placed.

Small bio-venture companies with early stage development experience hardships for receiving sufficient funds to move forward largely due to lack of recognition of the value of their unique and creative innovations by most of domestic venture capitals and funds. Furthermore, many of these has focused on investments to companies with technologies that are near to commercialization for rapid profit returns, regardless their market values or their levels of technological excellence, and has avoided risk-taking of investing to companies with innovative but early stage technologies that require long-term investments.

In order to reduce the investment risks while facilitating the emergence of attractive marketable products from domestic bio-ventures, it would be pertinent to raise foreign-domestic joint venture funds, such as bridge funds, which are strategically positioned for supporting the development and global commercialization of promising innovations of selected specialties through long-term and/or follow-on investments. In that sense, expanded government supports as well as active role modeling of private sectors cannot be overemphasized.