The government is firmly committed to the biotechnology sector with a recent announcement by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy that US$1.35 billion would be invested.

This is additional funds to state-based R&D projects valued at uS$9.2 billion and raising another US$22 billion through issuing state based bonds to foster the commercialisation of next generation technologies, particularly biotechnology.

This excludes measures such as establishing world-class research institutions, such as MOGAM Biotechnology Research Centre and POSTECH Biotech Centre.

The leading private company groups also established their biotechnology companies to pursue the business opportunities. Academic or research institutes' engagement in the bio research is active.

Leading companies include:

• LG Life Sciences – develops new drugs for the global market and has joint development projects with Parke-Davis & Yamanochi of Japan.
• Regen Biotech
• Labfrontier
• Crystal Genomics
• INbionet