South Korea now controls one-seventh of all new drugs
South Korea has pivoted from manufacturing electronics to fermenting medicine, operating some of the largest bioreactors on Earth to produce a massive share of global treatments.
In massive stainless steel tanks in Incheon, billions of genetically modified cells are hard at work brewing the future of medicine. South Korea now commands over 14 percent of the global drug pipeline, trailing only the United States and China. This shift is driven by biologics—complex medicines grown from living organisms rather than mixed from chemicals. Samsung Biologics alone operates reactors with a capacity of 180,000 liters, dwarfing traditional pharmaceutical giants.
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