For Korean bio clusters to succeed, they should strive to build industry-academia-research partnerships based on excellent human resources, as the biotech hub in Boston in the U.S. did, an expert said in a report.

The Korea Healthcare Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) said so in its report, "Boston Bio Cluster and the Case of Industry-Academia-Research Cooperation,” published recently in Health Industry Brief No. 400. BW Biomed CEO Woo Jung-hoon wrote the report.

Woo analyzed the success stories of the Boston Bio Cluster and explored the way forward for Korean pharma and biotech companies.

In the report, CEO Woo cited six reasons why the biotech industry should exist in a cluster format: low probability of success compared to long-term investment, diverse stakeholders, cooperation, shared infrastructure, enhanced competitiveness, and the need for many specialized workers.

To produce a drug, he noted that long-term research and investment of 10 to 15 years is required through non-clinical and clinical trials, but the success rate is very low, and the patent period is only about 20 years. In addition, various interest groups such as research institutes, universities, hospitals, clinical research organizations (CROs), contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), and capital and licensing agencies are involved in drug production, so it is advantageous to be located in a concentrated area.

The biotech industry requires research facility equipment and clinical infrastructure through hospitals' manpower and patients. So, sharing various infrastructures is essential for cost reduction and efficiency. Woo pointed out.

In particular, the bio-industry requires a large number of highly educated and specialized workers, unlike the simple labor market, so it is necessary to be close to renowned universities and research institutes to supply and demand advanced researchers, he added.

In the Boston Bio Cluster, there are about 113,000 biotech workers in Massachusetts as of 2022, and most hospitals and medical schools, including Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Boston Children's Hospital, are located in the Longwood Medical District.

As the example of typical industry-academia partnerships, Woo cited various cases, such as university- and research institute-led collaborations (such as the establishment of Aera Therapeutics, which began with technology from Dr. Feng Zhang at MIT); hospital-led collaborations (such as the creation of Mediar Therapeutics, which began at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital); capital and multinational pharmaceutical company-led collaborations (Rapport Therapeutics launched by Third Rock Ventures and Johnson & Johnson); collaborations between Boston-born biotechs (Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Arbor Biotechnologies); collaborative research between Harvard University/Hospital and Biogen; and public-private collaborations (Landmark Bio); and public-private collaboration (Landmark Bio).

Woo attributed the success of the Boston Bio Cluster to an excellent research workforce complemented by professionals with diverse backgrounds, making the most of their experience and networks. The growth of research institutes and hospitals, coupled with partnerships with multinational companies, has created an ecosystem that leads to commercialization.

"The biotech industry involves various stakeholders, such as research institutes, universities, hospitals, CROs, contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), and licensing agencies," he said. "Referring to various examples of industry-academia-government partnerships, it is necessary to overcome the stages (research, development, patents, investment, workforce, production, licensing, and marketing) that start-up companies need to overcome and grow through partnerships."

Woo went on to say, "The end goal of the bio-industry is the commercialization of technology. Regions that want to create new domestic bio clusters should focus on commercializing companies' assets efficiently, and each cluster should specialize and focus on a differentiated disease group or technology."