2024 was an eventful year for the South Korean biopharma industry with the emergence of several key themes that look set to carry over into the new year.
Five Themes For Korean Biopharma In 2025
US Approvals, New Modalities, Obesity
Scrip picks five key themes that dominated biopharma developments in 2024 and look set to continue to influence the industry throughout this year.

More from South Korea
South Korea's LigaChem is kickstarting a growth and globalization drive through a potential future acquisition of UK ADC player IKSUDA.
A new report from a domestic institute on South Korea’s biopharma M&A trends shows a pickup in activity, but that this remains relatively weak and small-scale. It calls for broader domestic government support to build expertise, drive innovation and globalization.
Cross-Asian initiative has already brought several South Korean gene and cell therapy startups and Japanese VCs closer, with further hopes for product development and launches in Japan, regulatory harmonization and gliobalization.
The latest activity in the South Korean biotech sector includes IPOs by Orum and Dongkook Life, as well as progress with ADCs at multiple firms.
More from Scrip Perspectives
A revolution is underway. Technology offers the possibility to transform multiple aspects of the traditional gold standard of drug development: the randomized controlled trial. Sharing their insights with Scrip, 30 thought leaders consider how the clinical trial landscape will evolve in 2025.
Industry pundits talk about conversational AI for sales reps, the arrival of AI agents, a potential overhaul in the SaaS market for pharma enterprises and the tricky arena of influencer engagement in this instalment on key trends playing out on the tech front and in India. Expanding healthcare coverage is also improving the outlook for pharma in the country, they said.
More than 50 executives across industry share their expectations for the impact of AI on the biopharma industry over the coming year. While target identification and drug discovery featured highly, the opportunities to engage with patients and healthcare providers more effectively and the need for suitable regulatory frameworks were also flagged up.