Govt-ind sees consensus on 'AI-based new drug governance'

that targets domestically produced blockbuster drugs

Set as National Bio Committee's key R&D project… align with KPBMA’s presidential election policy proposals

“The new government must also provide budget and policy support for AI and big data-based new drug platforms after the presidential election”

The current administration has promised support and promotion for the establishment of a national governance system for AI-based new drugs, which the domestic pharmaceutical industry has called for the attention of the presidential election candidates.

 

The National Bio Committee, which reports directly to the president, has selected AI-based new drug development as one of the 10 key tasks that the government will focus on for research and development (R&D) in the future.

 

The vision is to discover optimal new drug candidates based on AI and big data, and to fulfill national responsibilities by supporting the entire cycle, including design and validation.

 

On the 20th, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry expressed their broad consensus on the needs of the pharmaceutical industry in response to the announcement of the vision of the National Bio Committee.

 

The domestic pharmaceutical industry has repeatedly suggested that the infrastructure for new drug development utilizing AI and big data should be established at the national level.

 

In fact, the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association has proposed a policy to establish AI-based drug development governance for each candidate ahead of the June 3 presidential election.

 

The demand is that the government should aggressively provide budget and policy support to utilize AI and big data to revitalize new drug development, which requires astronomical investment and time, and has a significantly low success rate.

 

In particular, global big-tech companies such as Google AlphaFold 3-AlphaProteo, Nvidia BioNeMo, and Microsoft are developing AI super gap technology to be utilized in the whole stage of drug development based on large-scale investments and resources from global pharmaceutical companies.

 

The KPBMA believes that Korea must not fall behind in the AI drug development competition with advanced countries to become a new drug powerhouse.

 

Therefore, it is suggested that the government's full support is needed to create a national data-based open innovation ecosystem, build a big data platform for new drug development, and develop an AI-based intelligent autonomous laboratory optimization model.

 

The next administration should collect national bio R&D public data for each field of drug development and create a new drug development big data platform for pharmaceutical companies’ access.

 

Also, KPBMA’s policy proposal includes securing skilled professionals through an academia-industry collaborative training program for AI-driven drug discovery, as well as carrying out a joint platform project for shared use of AI-bio computing resources.

 

As the National Bio Committee directly agreed with the pharmaceutical industry's policy proposal, there are expectations that the green light has been given for national-level budget and policy support for AI-based drug development even after the presidential election.

 

An industry official said, “All previous administrations have set the goal of fostering the pharmaceutical industry as a future growth driver for the country, including developing new domestic drugs and discovering indigenous blockbusters.

 

The government that will be established after the presidential election should realize that establishing governance for AI drug development is a prerequisite for creating domestic blockbusters, and should provide policy support and budgetary investment at the entire government level.” “The National Bio Committee's selection of developing infrastructure for AI-based drug development as one of the top 10 key R&D tasks has become a cog in the domestic pharmaceutical industry's policy proposals.

 

We expect the new government to recognize that it is difficult for the private sector to create AI and big data drug development platforms, which are costly, and to take active policy and budgetary measures.”