Korean drugmakers expressed regrets on Wednesday that there are no biopharmaceutical experts in President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s transition team.
As the nation has experienced the Covid-19 pandemic for more than two years, the importance of the biopharmaceutical sector in dealing with infectious diseases has been emphasized.
Besides, a series of tangible achievements, such as the record-high exports of medical products, technology transfer, and advances to overseas markets, has directed the public’s attention to the biopharmaceutical industry as the future growth engine.
As a candidate, President-elect Yoon also stressed the need to “secure public health security and find new ways of creating national health.” As detailed action plans, he promised to establish a “biopharmaceutical reform committee” under the prime minister, support national R&D to secure vaccine sovereignty, create a global hub, and train core talents in the biopharmaceutical sector.
The campaign pledges were enough to raise expectations among industry executives that Yoon’s transition committee would include biopharmaceutical experts to put Yoon’s words into action and laid the foundation for industrial growth.
However, according to industry officials, the current transition team seems to fall far short of meeting such expectations.
The biopharmaceutical industry is related to the transition committee’s social, welfare, and cultural subcommittee, the second economic subcommittee, and the science and technology subcommittee. The science and technology subcommittee comprises government officials and private experts in the aerospace, real estate, nuclear power, education, and media areas and engineering and business administration experts.
The social, welfare and cultural subcommittee composition is not much different. Among key members are Rep. Lim I-ja of the People Power Party, Professor Ahn Sang-hoon of the Social and Welfare Department of the Seoul National University, Professor Baek Kyung-ran of Sungkyunkwan University College of Medicine, Seoul Vice Mayor Kim Do-shik, and Lim In-taek, former director-general of the Public Health Industry Bureau in the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
In other words, there are medical professors as infectious disease experts but no biopharmaceutical experts in all three related subcommittees, the industry officials pointed out.
Considering the composition of the transition team, it is doubtful whether President-elect Yoon’s campaign promises will be implemented properly.
“To carry out the president-elect’s pledges, biopharmaceutical experts need to participate in policymaking from the transition stage to reflect the voices of industrial fields, plan related policymaking, and turn his pledges into concrete plans,” said an industry executive. “However, I am afraid the pledges will only end up as such due to the lack of experts in the transition team.”
Pointing out that the domestic biopharmaceutical industry is too small to grow into a global powerhouse, the official stressed the need for the government’s positive support. “This is the right time to make the industry’s leap,” he said. “Only when campaign promises become policies can the original purpose of industrial promotion bear fruits.”