Innovation-Driven Pharmaceutical Company Certification Overhauled for the First Time in 14 Years; R&D Threshold Raised by 2 Percentage Points

The Ministry of Health and Welfare is comprehensively overhauling the innovation-driven pharmaceutical company certification program for the first time in 14 years and has raised the required proportion of research and development spending by 2 percentage points. The threshold will increase from 7% to 9% for companies with sales of less than 100 billion won and from 5% to 7% for those with sales of 100 billion won or more, while the number of evaluation criteria will be reduced from 25 to 17. Applications for certification will be accepted beginning Aug. 18, and the higher thresholds will take effect after a three-year grace period.