Genetics Startups in Korea Changing the Future of Healthcare

Advancements in technology have lowered the cost of gene sequencing technologies. This has led to the rise of genetics startups in Korea that want to change the future of healthcare. Genomic data is now widely available, which will play a vital role in drug discovery, understanding complex diseases, and, more importantly, finding appropriate treatments. South Korea is currently not up to date with clinical genetic services and genomic medicine. As South Korea does not have a big pharmaceutical company, startups will need to take the lead in offering innovative contributions for future genomic medicine for the healthcare industry. Add this to Korea’s already strong healthcare information system, and the possibilities for developing genomic medicine are limitless. Below are some of the top genetics startups in Korea offering innovative products and solutions.

Top Genetics Startups in Korea

Genoplan

Korean BioTech Startup Genoplan is a genetic testing company with big ambitions to use its cutting-edge technology, expertise, and experience to revolutionize health and wellness. Genoplan is Korea’s first startup to enter the direct-to-consumer DNA testing market. They use the latest up-to-date facilities to provide the fastest and most accurate DNA analysis results. In addition, they have raised $14 million through their series B round. Their total investment so far is $23 million. They focus on the Asian population with an office presence in Korea, Singapore, and Japan. Their affordable home-based saliva testing kit includes a life-long membership, a free update of the latest research, and a detailed analysis of over 450 categories.

Customers send their saliva collection kit to Genoplan, and they will receive an online analysis report in 10 business days. Furthermore, this report incorporates both genetic and non-genetic factors. This provides combinational predispositions to various diseases and tendencies to exciting traits. Therefore, as their business grows, the startup hopes to build a platform where people can easily access their genetic information and take early preventive measures.

3billion

Korean Medical Startup 3billion provides an AI-based medical diagnostic service to diagnose rare diseases. 3billion offers direct-to-consumer genomic rare disease screening tests. Their machine learning-based automated variant interpretation system reduces the time and cost of the process. Furthermore, they also offer a solution that scans for DNA mutations and helps physicians diagnose rare diseases faster and more accurately. The process works like this. First, the customer takes a sample of their saliva sample and sends it to Macrogen, their parent company. Macrogen is then able to create the genomic data from the sample.

“We are going to expand clinical studies to thousands of rare patients and sophisticate our variant interpretation system by using large-scale rare genome data from the studies,” said the CEO of 3billion, Changwon Keum.

3billion has raised over $10 million to date.

Genealogy

Genealogy is a bioinformatics startup that extracts high-resolution DNA data from simple DNA test data. Their algorithm uses the original data for the genetic test (SNP test) to predict the HLA gene and genotype. They also have a platform for uploading and converting general-purpose genetic test data and presenting AI-based DNA information. Moreover, they plan to develop an HLA matching service for blood cancer patients to determine whether patients and their families match.