Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of Korea, Accelerates the Pace of Innovation for the Great Leap in Bio

• Global Bio Conference 2026 opens under the theme "The Great Leap in Bio, Accelerating Innovation"
•  Leading experts from Korea and abroad gather to chart the future of global bio innovation

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- This is an article published in The Korea Herald:

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of Korea (MFDS, Minister Oh Yu-Kyoung) announced that it will host Global Bio Conference 2026 (GBC 2026) over three days from 26 August at the Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, under the theme "The Great Leap in Bio, Accelerating Innovation."

Now in its 12th edition, GBC is an international platform that each year brings together some 5,000 participants — regulators, pharmaceutical and biotech industry leaders and academic experts from across the world — to share the latest technologies, industry trends and regulatory policies in the biopharmaceutical field and to discuss the way forward.

This year's conference focuses on the role of regulation and the direction of international cooperation needed to translate fast-moving innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced biopharmaceuticals into real-world products and patient treatment, and on how to raise the global competitiveness of K-BIO, which continues to record remarkable growth in world markets.

In particular, a newly created session, GBC Special "K-BIO Innovation Leaders Talk", will bring together the industry leaders who have driven the growth and innovation of Korea's bio industry to share first-hand accounts of their successes and challenges and their strategies for entering global markets.

Opening Ceremony and Keynote Session

On the first day, 26 August, the Opening Ceremony and Keynote Session will look ahead to the future of the global bio industry.

At the Opening Ceremony, distinguished guests — including President Lee Jae-myung and Nam In-soon, Vice Speaker of the National Assembly — will deliver congratulatory remarks on the continued innovation and advancement of the bio industry as a core future industry.

The Keynote Session will feature Lee Sang Yup (Distinguished Professor, KAIST), Jeremy Farrar (Assistant Director-General, World Health Organization), Azad Bonni (Senior Vice President and Global Head of Neuroscience and Rare Diseases, Roche pRED) and David Nogales (Head of Technology Strategy, Merck KGaA), among other leading scholars from Korea and abroad, as well as experts from the global pharmaceutical and bio industry, who will share the latest biopharmaceutical trends including the outlook for bio innovation technologies, industrial change and regulatory innovation.

Discussing Future Strategies at the Specialized Forums and Workshops

On the second and third days, 27 and 28 August, a wide range of programmes will take place, including specialized forums by biopharmaceutical field — such as the Vaccine Forum, the Recombinant Protein Products Forum and the Biopharmaceutical Supply Chain Forum — alongside sessions devoted to the future strategy of biopharmaceuticals, including the Regulatory Science Innovation Forum and GBC Special.

The Vaccine Forum will share the latest review experience of overseas regulatory authorities in post-authorization safety management of vaccines and the evaluation of platform-based vaccines, and present current trends in regulatory science evaluation.

The Recombinant Protein Products Forum will look ahead to the future ecosystem for recombinant protein products, examining AI-driven innovation in antibody therapeutic development and the major regulatory shift from clinical evidence toward analytical evidence.

The Biopharmaceutical Supply Chain Forum will discuss strategies for overcoming supply chain vulnerabilities and building a stable pharmaceutical supply system even under crisis conditions such as pandemics, geopolitical tensions and instability in raw material supply, and will explore the future-oriented regulatory system needed to support them.

The Regulatory Science Innovation Forum will share the "Innovation Plan for the Approval and Review of Medical Products", which MFDS has been implementing since 1 June to expand treatment opportunities for the public through the rapid approval and review of new drugs, biosimilars and medical devices using new technologies, and will engage in dialogue with the development community.

In addition, GBC Special "K-BIO Innovation Leaders Talk", newly launched this year, will bring chief executives who have led the remarkable growth of Korea's bio industry into a talk-show-style panel discussion to share the successes and challenges behind turning innovation into reality, along with the strategies and future vision that opened up global markets.

Through this session, MFDS will showcase the innovation capability and competitiveness that Korea's bio industry has accumulated to participants from home and abroad, and explore together the direction in which K-BIO must move to take a further leap forward in the global market.

Amid the wider move to replace animal testing of biopharmaceuticals with non-animal methods, the Workshop on Animal Testing Alternatives for Biologicals will discuss trends in alternative test methods at WHO, EDQM and other national regulatory authorities, the status of development in Korea and the latest quality control trends. Meanwhile, Mentoring for Bio Youths, a mentoring programme for the young people who will lead the future of bio, will also be held, as part of a total of 16 forums.

Global Regulatory Cooperation Meetings and Consultations

Beyond the forums, the conference will host discussions on national regulatory frameworks and policy directions for fast-advancing bio technologies, together with cooperation among regulatory authorities toward global regulatory harmonization for advanced technologies.

The Regulatory Workshop will introduce the latest approval and review systems of participating regulatory authorities and discuss the role of regulators in supporting the development of biological therapeutics through technological innovation.

Following the Regulatory Workshop, 1:1 meetings between overseas regulators — from Canada, Japan and Singapore, among others — and Korean companies will be held to support the entry of the Korean bio industry into overseas markets.

The Vaccine Assessors Workshop will bring together overseas regulatory authorities including WHO, EMA and PMDA to discuss the regulatory landscape reflecting technological advances in the vaccine field and trends in key issues.

The Collaboration Meeting of Reviewers for Recombinant Protein Products will allow regulatory authorities from Korea, the United States, Europe and Japan (MFDS–FDA–EMA–PMDA) to share the current status and issues in the marketing authorization and review of recombinant protein products and to discuss approaches to review cooperation.

The 9th NIFDS–PMDA Joint Workshop will share the current landscape in advanced biopharmaceuticals, including cell and gene therapy products, discuss key issues arising in review, and exchange internationally harmonized perspectives on approval and review.

Minister Oh Yu-Kyoung of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety noted that the bio industry is a field in which innovative technologies emerge continuously and which is growing rapidly as a future engine of growth, and stressed that this is now an era in which the speed of connecting the possibility of innovation to real results determines competitiveness.

The Minister added that MFDS hopes GBC 2026 will serve as an occasion for regulatory authorities, industry and academia around the world to share their wisdom and experience, accelerate bio innovation and help the Republic of Korea make a great leap forward as a global bio powerhouse, and said that MFDS will provide strong support for K-BIO innovation and its entry into global markets through science-based regulatory innovation and active global regulatory cooperation.

MFDS said it will use GBC 2026 as a springboard to further strengthen its cooperation network with overseas regulatory authorities and will do its utmost in regulatory diplomacy and international cooperation so that Korea's outstanding biopharmaceutical innovation technologies can reach global markets more quickly.

Global Bio Conference 2026 (GBC) Overview

1. Event overview

• Dates : 26 (Wed) – 28 (Fri) August 2026
• Theme : The Great Leap in Bio, Accelerating Innovation
• Host : Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS)
• Venue : Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas (Gangnam-gu, Seoul)
• Website: https://www.gbckorea.kr/

2. Purpose and role of GBC

• To lead international harmonization in the biopharmaceutical field and build expert networks by sharing recent development trends and global issues in biopharmaceuticals
• To strengthen the capacity of MFDS as a biopharmaceutical regulatory authority through in-depth discussions and workshops with experts from overseas regulatory authorities
• To create a venue for promoting the R&D achievements of Korean companies and for sharing knowledge and experience with overseas regulators and experts, thereby supporting the global expansion of domestic industry

Past Event

SOURCE The Korea Herald