“New explosions in biotechnology are allowing us to interrogate cancers at a very sophisticated level compared to before,” Dennis Slamon told audience members at the Global Bio Conference in Seoul, South Korea Sept. 3.

Biopharma financing activity has continued to remain low compared to the highs seen in recent years, with a total of $39.83 billion raised across IPOs, follow-on offerings, public/other and private financings in the first eight months of 2025.

Countries in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region have an opportunity, or a time-limited “gap,” to become leaders on the global biotechnology stage, panelists at the Bio Asia 2025 conference said in Singapore Sept. 9.

The Korea Pharmaceutical Traders Association said Aug. 26 that it signed a strategic agreement with Korea Trade Insurance Corp. to support South Korean companies exporting biopharmaceutical materials overseas.

The amount of money raised through global biopharma IPOs in the first seven months of 2025 is at the lowest level since 2016, and more than half of the 13 completed through July were done on ex-U.S. exchanges. Only five of the companies have U.S. roots, while the rest are based in Asia: four in China, two in South Korea, one in Taiwan and one in Hong Kong.

Precision medicine is becoming a reality in Asia Pacific as more targeted therapies are being developed that are tailored to individual patients, offering a potential cure for disease. But is Asia Pacific ready to harness this transformation, and if not, what are the hurdles that need to be cleared?

Biopharma companies raised $34.89 billion through financings in the first seven months of 2025, including $5.66 billion in July, down from $7.38 billion in June. This year’s total falls short of $74.03 billion in the first seven months of 2024 and more than $80 billion in 2020 and 2021.

Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) secured 5.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer Inc./Biontech SE and Moderna Inc., officially including the mRNA-based vaccines in the country’s national immunization program on Aug. 5.