The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on the morning of the 29th that they held an emergency meeting with five pharmaceutical export corporations, the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association (KPBMA), the Korea Bio Association, the Korea Biomedicine Industry Association, and the Korea Pharmaceutical Traders Association.
The five corporations are SK Biopharm, Samsung Biologics, Lotte Biologics, Daewoong Pharmaceutical, and Celltrion.
The meeting, chaired by the director general of the Health Industry Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, was prepared to seek practical government support measures for corporations by listening to their difficulties stemming from trends in U.S. tariff imposition.
Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Truth Social on the 26th that "starting Oct. 1, a 100% tariff will be imposed on brand-name or patented medicines unless companies build their pharmaceutical plants in the United States."
Corporate officials who attended the meeting that day expressed concerns that item-specific tariff imposition by the U.S. government would increase the burden on corporations and weaken export competitiveness, and they asked the government for active support, including expanded assistance for entering the U.S. market and support for strategies to diversify export destinations.
Jeong Eun-young, director general of the Health Industry Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said at the meeting, "If the U.S. government finalizes the tariff imposition, we will push government support without a hitch to minimize damage to our corporations and will actively reflect what corporations need."
Director general Jeong said, "Even amid external crises, we will pool capabilities in public-private cooperation to respond to tariffs so that we can continue the strong momentum in medicine exports."
The government explained that, to stabilize the management of corporations affected by tariffs, it is providing 13.6 trillion won in emergency operating funds and a record-high 270 trillion won in trade insurance, and is supporting alternative markets by, among other measures, expanding logistics support from 30 million won to 60 million won.
It plans to provide all-out support to the export industry by significantly expanding, in next year's government proposal, export-specialized support budgets for global expansion of the biohealth industry, including building overseas footholds and consulting support, global marketing expense support, support for ancillary export expenses such as transportation costs, and expanded support for open innovation. Next year's government budget proposal is 34.9 billion won.