Ten new drugs expected from Korea by 2020

Korean bio and pharmaceutical companies are expected to develop more than 10 new drugs by 2020, which will bring about export effect worth billions of dollars per year. As a result, the bio and pharma sectors will most likely help revive in the future the nation’s export, which is slumping due to sluggish performance of the shipbuilding and steelmaking industries.

According to an in-depth survey of 30 leading biotech and pharma companies in Korea by the Dong-A Ilbo on Sunday, clinical trials are underway for 56 new drug candidates. The fact companies started clinical trials in humans, which are conducted after toxicity test and animal test for new drug candidates, suggests that the chance of success for their commercial development is fairly high.

When categorizing the 56 new drug candidates according to phases of clinical trials, 21 candidates are in phase 1, 24 in phase 2, and eight in phase 3. For three new drugs, preparation for commercial sale started already. According to the pharma industry, the probability for new drug candidates to become new drugs is about 10 percent for those in phase 1 clinical trial, 20 percent for those in phase 2, and 50 percent for those in phase 3.

It takes six years on average from the start of clinical trials to completion of new drug development. As such, by 2022 when the entire process of clinical trials for all the new drug candidates will be completed, Korea is expected to see 14 new drugs. When considering progress of phase 2 and 3 clinical trials accordingly, experts in the pharma industry predicted a total of 10 new drugs will make debut by 2020. Separately, Korean bio and pharma companies are studying a total of 60 new drug materials, the survey revealed. It means additional new drug candidates are in early phases of development.

Most Korean bio and pharma companies that are developing new drugs aim to develop new drugs of semi-blockbuster scale, worth 100 billion won (87 million U.S. dollars) to 1 trillion won (870 million dollars), or larger in annual sales. Since such drugs rake in more than 90 percent of sales from overseas, they are expected to generate extra export worth billions of dollars.