The 2023 World Bio Summit will operate a “Global Business Lounge,” in addition to its main sessions, to promote exchanges between international organizations and vaccine, pharmaceutical and bio companies so that they can improve their competitive edge by establishing networks.

According to the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, it will operate the “Global Business Lounge” from Nov. 20-21 as part of the 2023 World Bio Summit.

In the lounge, all summit attendees, including government officials from all over the world, officials from international organizations, and participants from domestic and foreign vaccine, pharmaceutical, and bio companies, can make more personal connections with each other.

“Through this, it is expected that additional cases of cooperation between domestic and foreign institutions would be made,” the Korea Health Industry Development Institute said.

Earlier last year, when the summit was held, the Korea Health Industry Development Institute ran the event, called “Global Round Table.” Through this, heads of domestic and foreign companies shared their experiences in responding to COVID-19 and discussed cooperation in preparation for the next pandemic. It became an opportunity to make essential contacts with each other, and this also paved the way for many companies to reinforce mutual cooperation between Korean domestic companies and others.

For example, SK Bioscience, a Korean vaccine and biotech company, signed a memorandum of understanding with Thailand’s Government Pharmaceutical Organization, a state-run pharmaceutical company under the Thai government, to establish its own vaccine production and development infrastructure in Thailand in July this year. Also, GenuinTech, a Korean pharma and biotech company, made a business agreement with Afrigen Biologics Vaccines, a South African biotechnology company, in October to commercialize CAR-T technology, a type of cancer immunotherapy treatment. Last year’s summit and “Global Round Table” served as the pump primers to make these collaborations, the Korea Health Industry Development Institute said.

To further promote to establish networks between the summit participants, the Korea Health Industry Development Institute has decided to run a business partnering program at the summit. It plans to coordinate business matching schedules and arrange partnering through preliminary demand surveys between crucial figures such as foreign governments, international organizations, global pharmaceutical companies, and domestic pharmaceutical companies.

“Through the Global Business Lounge and the Business Partnering, we hope additional cases of cooperation would be made,” the Korea Health Industry Development Institute said.