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Taking the Lead to Drive Full-Fledged Bio-health Investments with the K-Bio/Vaccine Investment Fund!

 

- K-Bio Investment Conference held under the theme of driving Bio-health investments -

 

 

The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW, Minister Cho, KyooHong) held the ‘K-Bio Investment Conference’ at the Sofitel Ambassador Hotel (Songpa-gu, Seoul) on November 24 (Friday).

On this day, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced its plan to invest more than KRW 250 billion in the Bio-health sector next year by enlisting fund management firms for the K-Bio/Vaccine No. 1 and No.2 Fund, along with two private fund management firms**.

 

* Yuanta Investment (CEO Yang Ki-seok), Premier Partners (CEO Song Hyeok-jin)

** Intervest (Co-CEOs Woo Chunghee & Lee Taeyong), Korea Investment Partners (CEOs Hwang Mahn Soon),

The K-Bio/Vaccine Fund No. 1 and 2*, which is currently pursuing a total initial formation with a size of KRW 261.63 billion, plan to finalize each of their formation process within this year and begin making full-scale investments in early 2024 over a span of four years.

 

* Fund No. 1: Preferred formation amount of KRW 150 billion (by Nov. 8);

Fund No. 2: initial formation amount of KRW 111.63 billion (by Oct. 20)

However, given the recent contraction of the pharmaceutical and bio investment markets*, up to 40% (amounting to KRW 100 billion) of the total available investment funds (KRW 261.6 billion) will be intensively invested in 2024.

 

* Bio and medical venture investment amount in the 1st to 3rd quarters of 2023 (press release from the Ministry of SMEs & Startups, Nov. 9) 2.5 trillion(1st to 3rd quarters of 2021) → 1.6 trillion(1st to 3rd quarters of 2022) → 1.1 trillion(1st to 3rd quarters of 2023)

 

The two K-Bio and Vaccine Funds aims to review phase 2-3 clinical trials of innovative new medications, innovative platforms, and vaccine technologies as major investment targets, for the purpose of developing innovative new drugs and securing vaccine sovereignty.

 

At the ‘K-Bio Investment Conference’, two fund management firms in the Bio-health field (Intervest and Korea Investment Partners) also announced their 2024 Bio-health investment plans, in addition to the K-Bio and Vaccine Funds.

 

The two Bio-health fund chief managers in attendance on this day are the lead managers of the international pharmaceutical funds No. 1* and No.2**, which are the first pharmaceutical-bio policy funds of its kind, and have continued to lead investments in the Bio-health sector since 2013.

 

* Global pharmaceutical fund No. 1 (Intervest): Achieved a multiple of 2.37 and IRR of 40.99% by managing KRW 100 billion from 2013 to 2020

** Global pharmaceutical fund No. 2 (Korea Investment Partners): Established between 2014 and 2024, operating KRW 135 billion (scheduled for winding down in 2024)

 

In particular, seizing the opportunity at this investment conference, they announced their plans to invest more than KRW 150 billion* in total in the Bio-health sector by 2024, in association with the K-Bio and Vaccine Funds.

* ’Investment scale in the Bio-health sector in 2024: Intervest at over KRW 50 billion/ Korea Investment Partners at KRW 100 billion

 

Attendees were pre-registered for this conference from November 15 to 22 through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute and the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association, and more than 100 companies attended, leading to detailed Q&A on investment applications and procedures.

 

After the conference, companies looking to apply for investment funds and request a consultation for the K-Bio/Vaccine Funds can readily apply through the investment consultation window* of the respective management firms.

* K-Bio-Vaccine No. 1 Fund (Yuanta Investment): hschoi@yuantainvest.com

K-Bio-Vaccine Fund No. 2 (Premier Partners): bd@premierpartners.co.kr

 

After the investment briefing sessions for K-Bio/Vaccine Funds, etc., professionals in each field announced strategies to drive full-fledged pharmaceutical and bio investments, including technology-based exceptional listing strategies, national new drug research and development (R&D) investment direction, merger and acquisition (M&A) trends and promotion measures.

 

Director General Jung Eun-young of the Health Industry Policy Bureau under the MOHW said, “There are high expectations that this K-Bio Investment Conference will lead to robust investments by Bio-health funds.”

 

She added,“We will continue to play a key role in forming and driving full-fledged private investments by creating additional K-bio and vaccine funds in the future,”///