Development Strategies for the Biotechnology Industry in the Post-COVID Era

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, interest in COVID-19 vaccines and treatments has grown. In addition, awareness of the importance of healthcare and disease prevention has risen, thus demand for related goods has also increased. There are movements to preempt emerging industries, such as pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and telemedicine, around the world. Recently, Korea selected the biotech industry as one of the so-called “BIG3” future industries primed to lead national innovative growth, along with the future mobility and non-memory semiconductors industries. The BIG3 industries are targets of four trillion KRW in government investment, which is an increase of 900 billion KRW from the previous year. Of those investments, about 1.7 trillion KRW will be allocated to the biotech and healthcare sectors. Other major countries such as the US, Japan, EU, and Israel are expanding R&D investments in those sectors to improve industrial competencies and to respond to COVID-19.This paper explores the status of the so-called BIG3 sectors and proposes a series of policy suggestions to maximize their growth potential going forward.