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Korea Herald

[Bio USA] Global biotech leaders call for stronger, smarter supply chains

BOSTON — A special panel discussion held Wednesday at the 2025 Bio USA brought together several global biotechnology leaders to tackle one of the sector's most pressing issues: how to build more resilient supply chains amid ongoing global instability. The session "Building Resilient Global and National Supply Chains" addressed the complexity and vulnerabilities of current systems, especially in light of recent global disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic and rising geopolitical tensions. Panelists unanimously agreed that the pandemic laid bare serious weaknesses in global biotech supply chains. "The pandemic was really what first started companies thinking about the supply chains. It disrupted a lot of the work that innovative pharma companies were doing," said Rory Mullen, head of Biopharma and Food at Industrial Development Agency Ireland. Since then, many companies have been reassessing internal operations and external partnerships, placing greater focus on regional resilience, supply redundancy and long-term risk management. However, new challenges continue to emerge, as told by panelists. 'Today, geopolitical tensions and the threat of tariffs add more layers of uncertainty,' Mullen added. 'As companies prepare for future shocks, they are constantly trying to assess what these uncertainties could imply.' Jurie Hwang, director general at the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization, spotlighted South Korea's significant dependency on foreign sources for materials and active pharmaceutical ingredients, especially from China and India. "We rely on them for 97 percent of our materials. In other words, we cannot survive without them in the drug-making process," Hwang said. She also identified a shortage of human resources as another critical vulnerability for Korea's biotech industry. Hilary Stiss, senior director of International Affairs at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, highlighted a fundamental gap in government understanding of the biotech supply chain's intricacies. "The lack of understanding of what the supply chain is, that's partly a failure on our part as an industry to explain," she said, calling for more proactive engagement with policymakers. Stiss also emphasized the need for expanded training and retraining programs at the state and national levels to support a stronger, more agile workforce. The session ended with the message that strengthening biotech supply chains takes more than quick fixes and requires ongoing collaboration, careful long-term planning and the ability to adapt in order to handle both current and future disruptions.