South Korea has high potential to become a major part of the global biopharma business ecosystem with its openness for collaboration and swift clinical trial process, according to executives of major multinational pharma firms operating in Korea.

“High technology, good work ethics and talented people are making Korea a good breeding ground for collaboration,” Christophe Piganiol, president of Zuellig Pharma Korea, said during a roundtable discussion earlier this month co-organized by The Korea Herald, the Investor and the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea.

A series of multimillion-won license deals with US and European companies for biologic drugs developed by Korean companies have put the industry in the spotlight in recent years as drugmakers seek to go beyond producing generic drugs and eye bigger markets.

But what attracted foreign pharma business leaders’ attention in Korea’s health care market was not just biosimilars produced by Celltrion and Samsung Bioepis. They said it has one of the world’s strongest clinical development programs, and foreign pharma firms appreciate the quality and speed of clinical trials conducted here.

“Korea has been internationally recognized as a key center of clinical trial development. It’s a side of drug development that tends to receive less spotlight (but is nonetheless critical),” said Uloff Munster, general manager of Merck Korea’s biopharma division.

Such views were echoed by Ingrid Drechsel, CEO of Bayer Korea, who called Korea “one of the most relevant countries in the world for clinical trials.”

“Based on the high quality of medicines in Korea, normally clinical trials start faster compared to other countries and they finish earlier with high participation,” she said. “This makes Korea an important market of reference.”

There are some hurdles, of course, such as the heavy red tape that all industries, and not just the pharmaceutical sector is subject to. This is an issue that the Korean government will have to solve in the long run, according to industry watchers who believe there is more room for relaxing regulations to make the country more investment and investor-friendly.

Despite some of the drawbacks, the three executives at the discussion saw more opportunities opening up for Korea, and for their home countries as well. And these opportunities in turn spell a better and healthier future for all global stakeholders, in particular, the people who actually benefit from the medications that become more widely available, they noted.

By Park Han-na and Sohn Ji-young (hnpark@heraldcorp.com), (jys@heraldcorp.com)