Prof. Howard Lee gave a talk at a pre-meeting workshop for the American College of Clinical Pharmacology Annual Meeting 2020 on September 16, 2020 (US EST). The title of Prof. Lee's presentation was 'Early Phase Clinical Trials in Korea'. In this talk, Prof. Lee explained how and why Korea has become one of the most attractive countries for clinical drug development, particularly during the past two decades. 

Prof. Lee also introduced the audience to some of his previous works in innovative clinical trial methodologies such as the microtracing technology, which he has spearheaded to make a useful clinical drug development tool in Korea. In association with this, Prof. Lee discussed two of his papers, one in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, the other Clinical and Translational Science, two reputable journals in clinical pharmacology. 

Prof. Howard Lee was invited to a seminar sponsored by the Samsung Science & Technology Foundation in association with the Future Technology Study Forum, held on August 28 at the SNU Hoam Faculty House, where he summarized the current status and future prospects of treatment and vaccine developments against the COVID-19 pandemic. Prof. Lee further discussed how the pandemic could change the way new drugs are developed in the post-pandemic era, characterized by social distancing and stay-at-home orders, often termed as "Untact".

Prof. Lee forecast the new drug development paradigm will be characterized as remote and virtual, particularly for clinical drug development in that many research activities should be performed off-clinic. "These changes will eventually facilitate and fasten the adoption of new information and communication technologies, for example, remote data entry and life-log data", Prof. Lee emphasized. According to Prof. Lee, urgency cased by the public unprepared-ness such as the COVID-19 pandemic will also encourage researchers to welcome more innovative technologies, one of which is the application of artificial intelligence algorithms to reposition new therapies, which could save tons of R&D time and expenses. 

Jung-Hyun Won, a summer intern at CCADD, has significantly contributed to the final presentation slide deck. Jung-Hyun and Prof. Lee will be writing one or two reviews/commentaries, which could be published in peer-reviewed journals.   

Three months ago, CCADD was awarded an intramural grant to present an AI forum to develop new research ideas, hopefully leading to an extramural grant application, for the efficient use of AI technologies for new drug development. Concluding this interdisciplinary endeavor, Prof. Howard Lee talked at the X+AI Workshop 2020 on August 24, along with 10 other PI's. The AI  forum Prof. Lee has led consisted of an interdisciplinary team of seven professors at SNU, and they have met weekly or biweekly a total of 8 times, all virtual due to the Corona pandemic, which is utterly unheard of. 

At the Workshop, Prof. Lee summarized what objectives the team has accomplished in various research areas in drug development where AI technologies can be adopted. Furthermore, Prof. Lee emphasized what hurdles needed to be overcome if more AI technologies could be employed to make the current drug developments practices faster, less costly, and more efficient. Prof. Lee's talk was well received, and he was approached by several PIs in other fields after the Workshop, who would like to extend their research network. 

CCADD is currently working on an extramural grant application based on the insights gained at the forum. In addition, Prof. Lee's presentation can be watched at YouTube below. 

The book The Age of Biopharmaceuticals, written by Prof. Howard Lee and Siun Kim, Ph.D. a student of CCADD, was selected in the liberal arts section of the Sejong Cultural Book Program this year. The Sejong Cultural Book Program is organized by the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea. This program aims to promote domestic publishing activities and to build a knowledge-based society by selecting outstanding books among those published throughout the year. The book worth 8 million Korean-won will be distributed to public libraries across the country. In 2020, 550 books were selected from a total of 7,184 candidates. The book The Age of Biopharmaceuticals is Coming was selected as an excellent book in the field of technology science. 

Besides, thanks to the interest of many readers, the book went into the second printing. An article reporting the publication appeared in the June issue of Newsletter, GSCST SNU.

Prof. Howard Lee has officially expressed strong disapproval of the reimbursement for 'cheobyak' or the mixture of herbal (or natural products-derived) drugs. In a roundtable provoked by the impending reimbursement decision of cheobyak by the Korea National Health Insurance Service against the objections by medical and scientific societies altogether, Prof. Lee raised intense disagreement with the government policy to support reimbursement of cheobyak. Prof. Lee argued that cheobyak has never been shown to be efficacious and safe through scientific assessments by the regulatory agency such as the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in Korea, not to mention its uncertain quality as a medicine. He continued, discussing "The cost-effectiveness of any cheobyak has never been validly studied and confirmed, which is the minimal requirement for any drug approved and listed for health insurance reimbursement in Korea." 

A summary of Prof. Lee's presentation at the roundtable can be found in many newspaper articles, one example of which is here. Additionally, his full presentation has been uploaded to YouTube as seen below:        

In the afternoon of 22nd May, the members of CCADD went on a picnic to the Gwanggyo Lake Park. After completing a regular schedule in the morning such as lab meeting and book reading, all members left the lab with excitement.

To ensure social distancing in apprehension of the COVID-19 pandemic, CCADD opted for an outdoor picnic as team building rather than indoor activities such as bowling or movie-watching, and it turned much more fun! Upon arrival, they instantaneously regretted not to have more opportunities for the past 4 years or so to come to such a beautiful place just nearby with eye candy scenery and great decks for walking. The weather was also perfect, not too cool, not too warm.

After enjoying a chat while having To-Pi-Chi (Toppoki, Pizza and Chicken), a favorite food combination for all the CCADD members, they played a couple of fun games from Korean TV shows – which are ‘Shouting in the Silence’ and ‘Sketch Quiz’. They laughed a lot seeing funny moments during the games; it was truly a time for healing, refreshing, and team building!

Wrapping up the picnic in time just before it rained, they decided to come to the Gwanggyo Lake Park again soon and often.