Korea’s biopharmaceutical industry has surpassed KRW 18.1 trillion (USD 13+ billion) in outbound technology-licensing deals in 2025, marking the strongest year in its history.
According to multiple November 2025 reports from The Korea Economic Daily, Chosun Biz, Seoul Economic Daily, and Newsway, the country has significantly outperformed its previous record of KRW 13.8 trillion set in 2021.
Beyond the magnitude of the deals, 2025 stands out because Korea’s success is now driven primarily by platform technologies, not individual drug candidates. This structural shift is reshaping Korea’s global competitiveness and altering how multinational pharmaceutical companies engage with Korean innovators.
1. A Record Year: What the Numbers Show
- Total outbound licensing value in 2025 reached KRW 18.11 trillion.
- Platform-technology licensing accounted for approximately KRW 13 trillion, representing the majority of all deals.
- Deal size per transaction has grown sharply, leading analysts to describe 2025 as the beginning of the “KRW 1 trillion-per-deal era”.
- Analysts suggest that the total may reach KRW 20 trillion by year-end.
This growth reflects not a one-off milestone but a structural acceleration in Korea’s global technology-export pipeline.
2. The Rise of Platform-Technology Licensing
Why platform technologies changed the game
Unlike traditional out-licensing of a single drug candidate, platform technologies can be applied across multiple pipelines, indications, and sponsors. This allows:
- multiple licensing deals from the same technology,
- broader global applicability,
- faster validation cycles,
- structurally higher deal values.
According to Chosun Biz, the most influential platforms in 2025 include:
- ABL Bio’s “GrabBody-B” BBB-shuttle antibody platform
- Alteogen’s hyaluronidase-based SC-formulation technology
- Rznomics’ RNA-therapeutics platform
These technologies directly contributed to the majority of Korea’s licensing revenue in 2025.
3. Major Players and Their Global Deals
ABL Bio
ABL Bio led the year with multiple global partnerships using its BBB-shuttle platform.
One of its disclosed partnerships is valued at up to KRW 3.7487 trillion (approx. USD 2.56 billion), according to Asiatime reporting.
Alteogen
Alteogen’s subcutaneous (SC) formulation-switch platform continued to attract multinational companies, driving several high-value agreements.
Rznomics
Rznomics completed licensing deals for RNA-based therapeutic platforms, contributing to the platform-centric shift in Korea’s tech-export profile.
Collectively, these companies account for most of the KRW 13 trillion in platform-technology licensing reported in 2025.
4. Industry Significance: What This Means for Global Biopharma
A new model for Korean biotech
The 2025 trend signals that Korean biotech is no longer competing solely on the basis of novel drug candidates. Instead, Korea is becoming:
- a platform-technology provider,
- a key innovation source for global R&D engines,
- a partner of choice for multinational pharma seeking advanced modalities.
Why multinational pharma is paying attention
Licensing platform technologies reduces development risk and opens multiple downstream product opportunities. Reports highlight that global “big pharma” is increasingly focused on Korean technology assets as enabling platforms rather than single-product bets.
5. Legal and Strategic Implications
From a legal and transactional standpoint, the platform-technology boom presents new complexities:
1. IP ownership and field-of-use definitions
Platform technologies require granular scoping of rights, including:
- indication-based territories,
- platform improvement rights,
- exclusivity architecture,
- sublicensing structure.
2. Milestones and royalty structures
Because platforms may yield multiple products, deal structures must anticipate:
- multi-product royalty tiers,
- step-down triggers,
- cross-product milestone interactions.
3. Post-deal risk management
Outbound licensing increasingly requires:
- joint-development governance frameworks,
- regulatory responsibility allocation,
- data governance for shared platform evolution.
4. Tax and cross-border structuring
As repeated licensing produces recurring royalty income,
Korean companies must carefully consider:
- royalty-withholding frameworks,
- permanent establishment (PE) exposure,
- transfer-pricing risks.
The 2025 boom suggests that Korea is entering a period where legal architecture becomes a decisive competitive factor in sustaining global partnerships.
6. Outlook: Is KRW 20 Trillion the Next Benchmark?
With several disclosed negotiations still underway, analysts cited by Newsway project that Korea may approach or exceed KRW 20 trillion in annual technology-licensing value by year-end 2025.
More importantly, the industry has established a new pattern:
platform-driven, repeatable, multinational deal-making.
If sustained, Korea may emerge as one of the world’s core innovation hubs for enabling biopharma technologies.
Conclusion
In 2025, Korea’s biopharma market crossed KRW 18.11 trillion in global technology-licensing deals, driven overwhelmingly by high-value platform technologies such as BBB shuttles, SC-formulation platforms, and RNA-therapeutic platforms.
Multinational pharma’s rising interest positions Korea as a global provider of enabling technologies rather than single-asset discoveries.
This structural shift carries significant implications for IP strategy, licensing architecture, development governance, and cross-border legal risk—areas in which Korean biopharma companies will increasingly require specialized guidance.
For inquiries related to Korea’s pharmaceutical industry, global licensing, IP strategy, or biopharma-focused legal advisory, please feel free to contact the Law Office of Woojin Lee.
