Global pharmaceutical companies’ investment in R&D in Korea has continued to rise for the fifth consecutive year in 2020, an industry group report showed.
The number of early clinical trials and studies of cancer and rare diseases increased significantly, and employment for R&D also expanded steadily, the report said.
Korean Research-based Pharmaceutical Industry Association (KRPIA) released its report on 31 members’ expenses for local R&D and researchers.
The KRPIA’s survey was jointly conducted by a research team led by professor Shin Ju-young of Sungkyunkwan University’s School of Pharmacy.
The report showed that 31 multinational drugmakers spent 569.3 billion won ($478.9 million) on clinical research in Korea in 2020.
The costs excluded R&D expenses commissioned directly by their global headquarters. Despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, multinational pharmaceutical firms continued to contribute to the Korean economy through increased R&D activities, KRPIA said.
Based on data from 25 KRPIA members that participated in the survey for the past five years since 2016, the total R&D spending increased from 360 billion won in 2016 to 590.2 billion won in 2020. Compared to 2019, the R&D jumped by 114.2 billion won (24 percent) in 2020.
The 31 multinationals had 1,846 employees for R&D activities in 2020.
They conducted a total of 1,499 clinical trials in 2020. Based on data from 25 KRPIA members between 2016 and 2020, the 25 firms worked on approximately 1,200 studies. In 2020, the number of phase 1 and phase 2 trials increased faster than phase 3 trials.
“Member companies not only invest in R&D through clinical trials but support basic research (three cases), non-clinical trials (four cases), an introduction of locally developed substances, a joint development with domestic pharmaceutical companies and research institutes, and R&D with local hospitals and organizations (12 cases),” an official at KRPIA said.
Also, he added that KRPIA ran 15 programs to provide education for local universities and research institutes so that Korea could have a better capability for new drug development and harmonize with the international standards.
The total value of investigational drugs, provided for domestic patients for free in clinical trials, was estimated to be 226.6 billion won in 2020, based on data from 31 KRPIA members, KRPIA said.
Clinical trials for cancer and rare disease treatment accounted for 64.5 percent (780 cases) and 10.3 percent (125 cases). Seventeen studies aimed to develop a Covid-19 treatment or a vaccine.
According to the KRPIA official, Korea registered the second-largest clinical trials in East Asia, after China. However, Korea’s share in global clinical trials went down from 2017 to 2019 but rose again in 2020 to rank at the world’s sixth, up by two notches from 2018, he went on to say. He said this was attributed to the Korean government’s deregulation efforts, including the five-year national project to advance clinical trials.
As the world was witnessing a quick change to patient-centered decentralized clinical trials and non-interventional studies such as real-world data/real-world evidence trials, Korea needs to come up with institutional policy support to improve the accessibility of local patients, just like advanced countries did, he added.