Paju city announced it would make the world’s largest bio medical industrial complex based on precision medicine such as cell therapy.

Deputy mayor Kim Jun-tae(acting mayor) said in the 1st international precision medicine center conference hosted by IPMC (International Precision Medicine Center) held in Seoul Westin Chosun on the 19th. According to IPMC, the local government will do a precision medicine-based platform pilot business in the IPMC building built in Paju.

Deputy mayor said, “Paju is the center city preparing for the unification era. It has advantages in terms of tour infra and its location itself. To make use of these advantages, the plan to build up the center came up. The plan to build the center came up to make Paju the mecca for stay-type medical tour and the hub for precision medicine industry. The goal of the center is to be the world’s largest bio medical industrial complex and about 50,000 will work in the center. We will make effort to attract universities to link companies and universities.”

IPMC said in a press conference the related pilot business will be started.

IPMC CEO Jang Young-woo said, “To do a pilot business for precision medicine in the coming 15 months, we are discussing details with Paju. IPMC will be a global center based on the results.”

He also said, “you will see the global precision medicine system, higher level compared with that in Korea through IMPC. There are hardware-based genome analysis bio companies such as Macrogen and THERAGEN ETEX in Korea, but there isn’t appropriate environment to actualize precision medicine. We want to build up a platform to make Korea become a hub for precision medicine in cooperation with global companies. We will take lead in global precision medicine industry based on precision medicine services.”

IPMC co-founder Dr. Robert Hariri (the manager at CELGENE in the USA/surgeon) expressed his wish to establish the world’s first precision medicine center in Paju. He explained it would be a kind of global cooperative foundation through IPMC.
Meanwhile, domestic companies such as Macrogen are operating precision medicine centers with university hospitals to provide precision medicine-based services such as tailored treatments etc.