보건복지부 (Ministry of Health and Welfare)

보건복지부 (Ministry of Health and Welfare, MOHW) is the central government department of the Republic of Korea for health, welfare and population policy. For regenerative medicine it is the designating authority: under the Act on the Safety and Support of Advanced Regenerative Medicine and Advanced Biological Products (첨단재생의료 및 첨단바이오의약품 안전 및 지원에 관한 법률), a medical institution may not carry out advanced regenerative medicine unless the Minister has designated it as an 실시기관 (implementing institution).

Designations are published, not merely asserted. The ministry and its review committee secretariat post a monthly roster — 첨단재생의료실시기관 지정 현황 — giving each institution's designation number, representative, address and designation date. That roster is what makes a clinic's regulatory status checkable by a patient rather than a matter of the clinic's own word.

The ministry also runs the review committee (첨단재생의료 및 첨단바이오의약품 심의위원회) that rules on individual clinical research and treatment plans, a separate approval from the institution designation itself.