Yesol Hong won the Excellent Research Award at the 30th Annual Conference of the Korean Society for Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (KSCPT), December 1-3, 2022, held at Bexco, Busan, South Korea. The title of YeSol's presentation was "One-year follow-up of patients with COVID-19: Analysis of new-onset disease after COVID-19 diagnosis using Real-World Data". She discussed the results of an analysis of the occurrence of disease in patients with COVID-19 over a year using two different real-world data sets. One of her analysis results was a nation-wide study, which was significant in that it included the largest number of study subjects among the studies analyzing the post-COVID-19-condition in Korea. Jung Hyun Won equally contributed to this study with Professor Howard Lee serving as the principal investigator.

Additionally, Siun Kim, Yoona Choi, David Seung U Lee also presented their research through poster exhibition at the conference. 

Full presentations can be watched at the following YouTube links: 

YeSol had the honor to deliver oral presentation and won the Excellent Research Award at 2022 fall conference hosted by the Korean Society of Medical Informatics(KOSMI). YeSol has presented her work entitled "Effectiveness and safety of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors(SGLT2i) added to mono, dual or triple treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM)". She discussed the additive efficacy in glycemic control and the tolerability of SGLT2i in T2DM patients when combined with other antihyperglycemic agents, such as metformin, sulfonylureas, and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors using real-world data. Yoona Choi, TaeKyu Chung, and Yoomin Jeon also contributed to this study as co-researchers, with Professor Howard Lee serving as the principle investigator.

The conference was a three-day event (from Nov 23rd, 2022 to Nov 25th, 2022) and was held at The International Convention Center, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Jeonbuk, South Korea. This conference, the host(KOSMI) organized the event around the theme, "The Power and Value of Healthcare Data Linkage". The conference was full of enlightening speeches that reflected the progress made in the field of medical informatics. With a total of 1,039 participants, this conference was held on the largest scale ever among KOSMI conferences. 

Prof. Lee emphasized the nationwide control tower for new drug development in Korea, preferably at the Prime Minister's Office level. This remark came out at a forum Prof. Lee was invited as a speaker, sponsored by Chosun Biz, November 10, 2022. "The control tower should be the epicenter for coordinating diverse government-led supports, policies and activities to make new drug development in Korea much faster and more efficient", Prof. Lee said. "The control tower can be also working as an overarching center for training experts and bringing up more talents required for every single area of drug development, no matter how it is small or large", Prof Lee added.   

A full newspaper article reporting Prof. Lee's speech can be found here. 

Yujin Kim is a bio-medical engineering major at the department of Integrative Engineering, Chung-Ang University. She became an undergraduate student researcher at CCADD after successfully completing the 2022 Summer Internship program. Before this, she studied the fundamentals of drug development while participating in AMIST Drug Development Online Summer School program in 2021. At CCADD, she intends to explore diverse ways to integrate her engineering and biological knowledge with artificial intelligence (AI) technology and discover solutions to overcome limitations in medical data.

The book 'There's no such thing as K-Quarantine', written by Prof.Howard Lee, Jung-Hyun Won, YeSol Hong and 13 others, 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. Books worth 8 million Korean won will be distributed to public libraries nationwide. In 2022, 550 books were selected from a total of 8,698 candidates. The book There's no such thing as K-quarantine was selected as an excellent book in the field of technology science. 

Prof. Howard Lee discussed the issues of new drug development policies and strategies laid out by the Yoon government at the 6th Policy Symposium of the Professional Graduate Schools at Seoul National University, held on September 28, 2022 at the Graduate School of International Studies. Prof. Lee started his presentation by telling why it is important to talk about new drug development policies right at this moment. According to Prof. Lee, the likelihood that South Korea can become a leading country in drug development is the highest in history, but it has to be strengthened and guided by the government to make it a true reality. Prof. Lee pointed out the policies and strategies as proposed were too much focused on biologics, infectious disease, and digital health, urgently requiring some levels of balance. Prof. Lee further emphasized the importance of having a nationwide control tower to reduce redundant investments and to facilitate faster actions currently involving too many government agencies and ministries. Prof. Lee concluded his presentation by saying, "Even though all the recommendations are implemented, Korea cannot become a leading country in new drug development unless the society as a whole is ready to pay a price for innovations."

Prof. Lee's presentation can be watched by clicking the following YouTube link: 

In the 8th Global Bio Conference sponsored by the Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on September 6, 2022, Prof. Howard Lee emphasized the unique nature of biologics in comparison with conventional small-molecule drugs, particularly in terms of their clinical safety and accessibility. "The safety of biologics should be ascertained even after they are approved for marketing since they are way different from the traditional chemistry-based drugs", Prof. Lee argued. Prof. Lee further pointed out the uniqueness of biologics by saying "We have to be well prepared not only for the utility, but for the potential safety issues in every single biologic, which is anticipated to be more frequently used in a clinical setting." Prof. Lee also addressed the reimbursement for biologics because they are typically more expensive although their efficacy can be dramatic.

More details about Prof. Lee's presentation at the GBC can be found at the following online articles: 1 and 2. 

Prof. Howard Lee argued that the current dichotomy between 'orphan drugs' and 'treatments for orphan disease' has severely aggravated the lower reimbursement rate by the National Health Insurance Service for orphan drugs, particularly for children. This argument came out from a forum Prof. Lee was invited to at the National Assembly on July 13, 2022. Prof. Lee continued the reimbursement decision for orphan drugs cannot solely be dependent upon cost-effective analysis because the society has to pay ethical and humanitarian attention to children with orphan diseases and their families, not to mention their pains and frustrations. Prof. Lee's plenary talk was well received by the press too, and his full presentation can be watched by clicking the YouTube link below.