Dr. Hwang is at it again.
October 17, 2005 ? A government report on the top ten plans Korean scientists have for the development of stem cells includes the first clinical tests on embryonic stem cells next year and treatment drugs made from adult stem cells to be produced by 2007.
The Korea Health Industry Development Institute said yesterday it recently published a report on specialists' outlooks for the stem cell-related industry, which it predicted would grow by an average of 18.5 percent yearly for the next 10 years.
The participants in the study for the report included professors, researchers and people working in commercial laboratories; stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk was the group's advisor.
The report said there are 110 current projects on clinical tests of adult stem cells and three companies are already at commercial stages. Therefore, it said, provided laws on such medication allow, treatment developed from adult stem cells would be available as early as 2007. It said treatment drugs from embryonic stem cells would probably be on the market by 2015.
The report added, however, that domestic stem-cell companies have weak finance and marketing resources, and predicted mergers and acquisitions with multinational pharmaceutical companies. It also said Korean companies did not have international patents on core technology regarding stem cell research.
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