The government decided to nurture nearly 27,000 experts in the biohealth sector this year. The aim is to develop talent that meets the demands of corporations and solve the mismatch between the supply and demand for skilled workers.
On the 25th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare held the '6th Biohealth Innovation Committee' meeting in the large conference room of the ARPA-H in Jung-gu, Seoul, to discuss these matters. The meeting was chaired by Commissioner Kim Young-tae, the president of Seoul National University Hospital.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to nurture a total of 108,000 talents, including physician-scientists and master’s and doctoral degree holders in advanced technology fields, by 2027. This year, it will particularly increase training through collaboration between industry and academia. Earlier, the government aimed to cultivate 22,100 talents across 81 projects in nine ministries, but the actual trained workforce was double that, reaching 44,800.
During the meeting, the government also reviewed the regulatory innovation achievements in the biohealth sector for the first quarter of this year. It examined the 32 improvement proposals that had completed departmental reviews and selected seven urgent 'killer regulations' from the biohealth industry to discuss solutions.
Accordingly, the government plans to revise the medical device software verification guidelines to align with international standards and establish guidelines for clinical evaluations of medical devices.
Moreover, if the manufacturing line is changed to another space within the same building without any quality variation, it plans to enable the export of medical devices without separate change approvals from foreign authorities. If the establishment location (including changes in floors) has lawfully met the requirements for item permission and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) inspections, a special note stating 'There is no difference in safety and efficacy' will be issued on the English certificate. In this case, manufacturers will be able to export medical device products without going through separate change approval procedures from foreign regulatory authorities.
In addition, according to the demands from the field, the government has raised the upper limit of the production cost compensation for plasma-derived products (medicines that extract and purify necessary components from blood without altering specific proteins) listed in the national health insurance. Furthermore, the related criteria were improved to ensure that even drugs that have received penalties or administrative sanctions can be adjusted for maximum prices to protect patient treatment rights.
Commissioner Kim Young-tae noted, 'Through checking the implementation status of the biohealth talent development project and regulatory task improvements, we were able to discuss comprehensive government support measures to maximize the capabilities of the industry strongly.' He added, 'We will also continue to make efforts to ensure that this is reflected in government policies and results in tangible outcomes.'