Korea industry and drug ministries sign AI bio pact

The industry ministry and the food and drug safety ministry signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday to cooperate on artificial intelligence adoption and global competitiveness in the bio industry, the two said, citing a paradigm shift across development, manufacturing, quality control and exports.

The agreement, signed at the Chuncheon Bio Industry Promotion Institute in Gangwon Province, covers five areas: development, demonstration and commercialisation of AI fusion technologies in bio; verification standards and guidelines for new AI technologies; development and commercialisation of domestic bio materials, components and equipment; export support through the sharing of overseas regulatory information; and stabilisation of supply chains for core health and medical items.

"As bio and medical device technologies have many stages to pass through before reaching the market, including performance verification, licensing and securing sales channels, 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."

The two ministries will set up a director-level consultative body to identify joint projects, including joint research and development tasks in M.AX bio and bio materials, components and equipment.

Food and Drug Safety Minister Oh Yu-kyung said the regulatory side must be built in early. "For excellent technologies to be introduced quickly in the field, regulatory review and institutional groundwork must proceed in parallel from the early stages of development," she said. "Based on the regulatory diplomacy expertise the food and drug safety ministry has accumulated, we will actively support our companies' innovative products in entering the market quickly together with the industry ministry."