Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Yuanta Investment have been selected as the management companies of the 500 billion won ($347 million) “K-Bio Vaccine Fund.”
The Ministry of Health and Welfare and Korea Venture Investment Corp. (KVIC) on Wednesday announced their final selection of Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Yuanta Investment as the two management companies that form and invest in the K-Bio Vaccine Fund.
The K-Bio Vaccine Fund is a fund created by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and three state-run banks by investing initial funds to create world-class innovative new drug development success stories and secure vaccine sovereignty.
The health and welfare ministry will invest 100 billion won, 50 billion won from its 2022 budget and 50 billion won from the recovery of existing funds, through three state-run banks – the Korea Development Bank, the Korea Eximbank, and the Industrial Bank of Korea.
Mirae Asset and Yuanta will invest 25 billion won and 20 billion won, respectively, and recruit private investors to create and run the 500 billion-won fund.
Fund managers will invest more than 60 percent of the total in companies that conduct clinical trials to develop new drugs and vaccines, and more than 15 percent of the total companies specializing in vaccines.
Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Yuanta Investment applied for the open recruitment of fund managers held by KVIC from Aug. 4 to 26.
KVIC conducted the document review and compliance review for the two applicants and both won more than the standard score. KVIC then carried out on-site due diligence and evaluation by the investment council held on Tuesday before finalizing the two managers.
The two management companies will push for creating the fund in earnest by recruiting private investors after winning the final approval from the three state-run banks as joint investment institutions,
“Through the K-Bio Vaccine Fund, we expect biopharmaceutical companies with promising new drug development pipelines to receive timely investment and complete the new drug development,” said Kim Hyun-joon, head of the health and welfare ministry’s team to promote Korea as a global vaccine hub. “The ministry also will continue to manage the fund to form the fund and begin investment quickly, and expand it to 1 trillion won in the future."