Food and drug safety ministry, industry ministry sign bio cooperation pact

The food and drug safety ministry said Wednesday it signed an agreement with the industry ministry to cooperate on promoting the bio industry, bringing the two agencies together across the sector's entire cycle from technology development to exports.

The memorandum, concluded at the Chuncheon Bio Industry Promotion Institute in Gangwon Province, covers development, demonstration and commercialization of AI convergence technology in bio; verification standards and guidelines for new AI technologies; development and commercialization of domestic bio materials, parts and equipment; export support through the sharing of overseas regulatory information; and stabilization of supply chains for core health and medical products.

The agreement was reached on the shared view that the spread of AI and the reorganization of global supply chains are driving a paradigm shift across the bio industry — from development through manufacturing, quality control and exports — and that companies need technological leaps matched by supporting regulatory services to secure competitiveness preemptively.

"Bio and medical device technology has many stages to pass through before reaching the market, including performance verification, licensing and securing sales channels, so the industry ministry and the food and drug safety ministry must move as one team," Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said. "We will accelerate the AI transition of the bio industry and cooperate so that tangible results emerge from technology development through to exports."

Food and Drug Safety Minister Oh Yu-kyoung said regulatory review and institutional groundwork must proceed in parallel from the earliest stages of development for good technology to reach the field quickly. "Based on the regulatory diplomacy expertise we have built up, the ministry will actively support the swift market entry of innovative products from our companies together with the industry ministry," she said.

The two sides will set up a director-general-level consultative body to continue identifying cooperation tasks, including joint research and development projects in areas such as M.AX bio and bio materials, parts and equipment, and to monitor progress.