Korea expands investment in biological big data 4-fold: report

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The Korean government has nearly quadrupled its investment in the biological big data sector over the past few years as part of an initiative to establish a big data platform for advanced medicine, a report showed Friday.

The government invested 49.1 billion won ($33.3 million) in the sector in 2024, up sharply from 13.6 billion won in 2020, according to the report by the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology.

Last year's steep increase came as the government launched a project to build a data bank containing biological information from 1 million people by 2032 to support precision medicine and industrial innovation.

The data bank will serve as research and development (R&D) infrastructure for clinical information, genomic data, and the collection of public data and personal health information.

The report noted that the government's move aligns with a global trend in which leading countries are expanding their spending in the sector.

The United States, for example, invested $148 million last year, up from $24 million in 2020, with both the number of R&D projects and investment per project on the rise.

Consequently, the report projected the global market for health care big data to grow to $540 billion in 2035 from $78 billion in 2024.

"Health care big data is a key driver of digital medical innovation," the report said. "The practical application of health care big data will expand due to the generation of vast amounts of medical data and the advancement of analytical capabilities, such as artificial intelligence (AI) technology."