AJP On-site: Korean biotech gets hands-on in AI's shadow

SEOUL, October 28 (AJP) - A glove at the Samsung Bioepis booth turned a reporter's fingers stiff as plaster at BIX 2026 in Seoul on Wednesday. The knuckles would barely bend.

The glove simulates the difficulty of moving hands affected by severe rheumatoid arthritis. Even with it on, pulling the cap off the company's pen-type injector took just a flick of the thumb.

Pressed against a silicone skin model, the device released its spring-loaded needle with a sharp click.

"Patients with severe arthritis live their daily lives about like this. The drug brings them back, but taking it is not easy because their hands are uncomfortable," a Samsung Bioepis official at the booth said.

Many biologics have traditionally been administered intravenously in hospitals. Prefilled syringes and autoinjector pens — the same format used for GLP-1 obesity drugs — have made self-injection easier, removing the need for patients to measure doses by hand.

"With this, they can enjoy daily life as if they had taken the glove off," the spokesperson said.
  Few trade shows bring together such a varied cast. A treatment for shoulder pain was on display at one booth, automatic fire doors for biologics plants at another. Cleanroom suits and sterile gloves filled displays a few aisles away.

Contract manufacturers Samsung Biologics and Lonza shared the floor at COEX with logistics giant DHL and Germany's Merck, which showcased analyzers and other bioprocessing tools.

The three-day show has drawn more than 300 companies to about 600 booths.
  Yet the hall was comparatively subdued against the physical AI expos where humanoid robots dance and shake hands with visitors. Apart from single-arm industrial robots shuttling petri dishes and drug cartridges, there was little spectacle.

Investors, too, have been drawn to the louder show.

AI startups raised $211 billion in 2025, about half of global venture funding, according to Crunchbase. Healthcare and biotech ranked second with about $71.7 billion. By the second quarter of 2026, AI's share of global startup funding had climbed above 70 percent.

"The technology we have is nothing original. It is just one of the many ADCs out there," Ko Han-sung, chairman of the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization and a former CEO of Samsung Bioepis, said at the opening ceremony, referring to antibody-drug conjugates.

Ko said competition for capital from AI had made fundraising difficult and called for government policy changes the industry could actually feel.

The booths offered a reminder of how many businesses depend on a drug's journey to market. Before a treatment reaches a patient, it passes through the hands of researchers, contract manufacturers, equipment suppliers, cold-chain carriers and regulators.

Sally Temple, chief scientific officer of Luxa Biotechnology LLC, said in the day's keynote that taking a cell therapy from discovery to the clinic "really takes the team."
  At the Samsung Bioepis booth, that long chain of work came down to a stiffened hand and a pen.

The glove slipped off in seconds. For patients who live with that stiffness, being able to give themselves an injection is no small advance.

AJP Takeaways

- BIX 2026 opened on Oct. 28, 2026, at COEX in Seoul with more than 300 companies and about 600 booths, including Samsung Biologics, Lonza, Samsung Bioepis, Merck and DHL.

- AI startups raised $211 billion in 2025, about half of global venture funding, compared with about $71.7 billion for healthcare and biotech, according to Crunchbase.

- The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources pledged on Oct. 28, 2026, to expand support for the bio industry, with a focus on bio supply chains.

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