Government to Foster K-Bio CMC Industry, a Key to New Drug Development

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is moving to foster the pharmaceutical chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) industry, which can determine the success or failure of new drug development.

Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Moon Shin-hak attended the CMC Industry Capacity-Building Seminar on the 29th at Widen Tower in Pangyo Second Techno Valley, where participants discussed ways to foster the CMC industry.

CMC stands for Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls. It refers to demonstrating to regulatory authorities that a drug can be safely produced with consistent quality from the raw-material stage through its launch.

The seminar was jointly hosted by four organizations, including the Korea CMC Service Industry Research Association and the National Development Institute of Korean Medicine.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to work with the Ministry of Science and ICT on a new research and development (R&D) program to build an open CMC platform.

The plan is to provide end-to-end CMC services covering everything from candidate optimization through the preclinical and clinical stages.

“CMC is a core competitive strength that determines the success or failure of new drug development,” Vice Minister Moon said. “We plan to support R&D, workforce training and expert consulting to secure global competitiveness for the CMC industry.”

About 60 experts from industry, academia and research organizations in South Korea attended the seminar.