Prof. Howard Lee chaired a forum, organized and sponsored by DailyPharm, an online-only journalism company focusing on the pharmaceutical industry, on April 12, 2021. The title of the forum was 'Reimbursement System for High-Priced Drugs in Korea', which has become an issue as more and more advanced therapeutics such as cell and/or gene therapies are introduced as a breakthrough treatment option. The forum had four panelists, three of whom represented the pharmaceutical industry and one the Korea Ministry of Health and Welfare. 

It was a coincidental and timely event because Prof. Lee and Yoona Choi have been working an a research project with an aim to increase patient access  to new drugs in Korea. This project was sponsored by the Future Health Network, and the second round of the research project is under discussion. The results of the first round of the project has been published in a peer-reviewed Journal as a research article. 

The details of the forum can be read and watched here.

Prof. Howard Lee spoke at a webnar co-sponsored by MEDCITY in the UK and the Korea Pharmaceutical and Biopharma Manufacturers Association in Korea (KPBMA). MEDCITY represents the life sciences cluster of London and the Greater South East of England. KPBMA is the largest pharmaceutical industry organization in Korea, which has members of 174 domestic pharmaceutical firms and 21 multinational corporations. 

The title of the webinar was 'New Approaches to Immuno-Oncology', and Prof. Lee introduced the current status of advanced therapeutics development in Korea. In his talk, Prof. Lee gave an overview of the global trend in immune-oncology (IO) drug development. He also discussed a snapshot of IO drug development in South Korea, where he also summarized three of examples, i.e., Hyleukin-7 (Genexin), Pexa-Vec (Shillagen), and ABL501 (ablbio). Prof. Lee concluded his presentation by giving a future prospect for IO drug development in Korea, both the bright and gloomy sides. 

The other speakers included: Prof. Farzin Fazaneh (King's College, UK), Prof. Francesca Ciccarell (Cancer Genomics, King's College, London, UK), and Dr. Jong-Seong Ahn (GC Cell, Seoul, Korea). Siun Kim has contributed to the preparation of the slide deck that Prof. Lee used.