Health ministry moves to tackle decline in Korea's clinical trials

The government has begun to take comprehensive measures after concerns were raised over the declining number of clinical trials conducted in Korea.

An official from the Health Industry Promotion Division of the Ministry of Health and Welfare shared this during a meeting on Wednesday with journalists, explaining measures to support clinical trial development.

According to a report by the Korea National Enterprise for Clinical Trials (KoNECT) in March, 4,667 global clinical trials were conducted in 2024, representing a 4.4 percent year-on-year increase. However, Korea's share and number of trials decreased year-on-year. Korea's share of clinical trials and ranking dropped from fourth in 2023, with 4.04 percent, to sixth in 2024, with 3.46 percent.

For single-country trials, Korea maintained its No. 3 ranking, but its share decreased from 5.05 percent to 3.99 percent. In multinational trials, Korea’s share and ranking also fell -- from 3.39 percent and 10th place in 2023 to 3.13 percent and 11th place in 2024.

In the city rankings, Seoul was the top city in 2023 with a share of 1.55 percent, but dropped to second place in 2024 with a share of 1.32 percent. The top city for clinical trials in 2024 was Beijing, with a 1.40 percent share.

The pharmaceutical industry notes that Korea has been a country with high clinical trial capabilities due to its advanced medical infrastructure, skilled researchers, and extensive experience. Still, its ability to conduct clinical trials has declined due to the government-doctor conflict caused by unreasonable expansion of medical school capacity and accumulation of fatigue among medical workers at university hospitals.

In addition, China has recently improved the overall quality of clinical trials, thanks to an enhanced regulatory environment for clinical trials, and is emerging as a global market center, armed with its low costs and ease of acquiring large-scale patients, which raises concerns that countermeasures are needed.

“As the number of clinical trials conducted in Korea and the share of clinical trials are declining, we plan to come up with comprehensive measures to improve the ranking in the second half of this year,” the ministry official said, requesting anonymity for policy reasons. “To this end, we will start discussions from next week.”