K-Bio Lab Hub Breaks Ground in Songdo; Completion Set for 2028, With 60 Companies to Move In

K-Bio Lab Hub, a national infrastructure initiative supporting biotech startups, has broken ground in Songdo, Incheon.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) said it held a groundbreaking ceremony for K-Bio Lab Hub on Sept. 30 at Yonsei University’s International Campus in Songdo, Incheon. More than 200 people attended, including MSS Minister Lee So-young, the second vice minister of health and welfare, Incheon Mayor Park Chan-dae and Yonsei University President Yoon Dong-seop.

K-Bio Lab Hub is modeled on LabCentral, a support organization for biotech startups in Boston. It will provide drug development space, research equipment, research and development (R&D) and support for global expansion in one location.

Construction began with the groundbreaking, and the building is scheduled for completion in November 2028. At completion, 60 biotech innovation startups will move in. The first and second floors will house an operations control room and areas for high-cost specialized equipment; the third through seventh floors will have 50 spaces for early-stage companies, and the eighth and ninth floors will have 10 spaces for growth-stage companies.

MSS will first install 24 units of 17 types of general-purpose research equipment needed by biotech companies in temporary space at Yonsei University’s International Campus by October this year. It plans to install a total of 134 units of advanced equipment across 59 types when the building is completed.

Tenant companies will be selected in 2028. The program will introduce a “golden ticket” system under which anchor companies directly recommend promising companies for evaluation. It will also establish an open innovation platform linking industry, academia, research, hospitals and venture capital (VC) to promote joint R&D and investment.

Starting in 2029, six specialized programs will provide tailored support to tenant companies at each stage. The plan is to provide 41.4 billion won to 60 companies, covering support from candidate discovery through preclinical and clinical development, regulatory approval and fundraising.

The project was approved at the sixth Innovation Growth BIG3 Promotion Meeting in March 2021, after which Songdo, Incheon, was selected as the final site through a competitive process. Following a preliminary feasibility study and architectural design in August 2022, construction began.

Yonsei University is providing the site, while Incheon City is covering construction costs, making this a joint project of the central government, local government and academia. In connection with Songdo’s biotech cluster, including Celltrion, Samsung Biologics, SK bioscience, Lotte Biologics and Yonsei Severance Hospital, the project is expected to build a network among startups, universities, anchor companies and hospitals.

A membership program will also allow companies that are not tenants to use the Lab Hub’s infrastructure, network and data analysis services. The plan is to establish a foundation for self-sustaining operations after government support ends, based on reinvestment and accumulation of revenue.

MSS Minister Lee So-young said, “K-Bio Lab Hub will be a key incubator for Korean biotech startups to grow into global unicorn companies. With the groundbreaking as a starting point, we will bring together the capabilities of our partner organizations to build a world-class biotech startup hub.”