6 January 2026 - Korea spent 2025 doing something it has not always been quick to do: it paid for more new, high cost medicines -- and it did so in a way that favoured oncology and rare diseases.

Now, as 2026 begins, the country is nearing a different kind of test. A Korean made CAR-T therapy is in late-stage review and could become the nation’s 42nd “homegrown new drug,” putting a domestically developed cell therapy into a market that has relied on imported products and imported manufacturing capacity.

Read Korea Biomedical Review article