Prof. Howard Lee was featured in the 'Medical School Library', a lecture series channel at YouTube by the Young Doctors, an online journalism company with a focus on the medical societies, medical issues and policies, and the biopharmaceutical industry. Prof. Lee introduced the audience to the concept of biopharmaceutical products as to how different they are from the traditional, chemically synthesized, small-molecule drugs. He also discussed advanced biotherapeutics using a couple of tragic failures by two Korean biopharmaceutical companies, i.e., Shillazen and Tissugen to emphasize the informed design of clinical trials and the quality manufacturing for biopharmaceutical products. Prof. Lee finally talked about biosimilars: what they are, how different they are from the reference biologic, and what clinicians should know before [s]he prescribes a biosimilar.

Prof. Lee's lectures can be watched by clicking the following links: 

Prof. Howard Lee was invited to a session at the Spring Conference, 2021, organized and sponsored by The Pharmaceutical Society of Korea, April 22, 2021, held in the K-Hotel, Seoul, Korea. In the session, Prof. Lee introduced the audience to a dimension reduction model that CCADD has developed to make clinical trial feasibility assessments efficient, practical, and realistic. The research project has been supported for three years by the National Research Foundation of Korea, which is expected to end by this year. Based on the positive results of the research, particularly in the area of type II diabetes mellitus, a patent has been filed, and CCADD plans to expand it to other disease areas too. Prof. Lee has emphasized in the session that artificial intelligence technologies can and should be applied to clinical drug development to make it more versatile and agile. His talk was well-received. 

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 was invited to a forum, sponsored by the National Academy of Medicine of Korea, entitled "Enhancing the role of physicians in the biomedical industry", March 31, 2021. As a panelist, Prof. Lee stressed the integrated nature of basic and applied sciences to develop more medical products such as drugs, medical devices, vaccines, diagnostics, preventive goods, and so on. Prof. Lee also emphasized to rear a rich nurturing environment, in which a diverse 'physician-X', with X being anything, career track can emerge and thrive by quoting a recent paper. 

A full video clip of Prof. Lee's talk can be watched at the following YouTube link: 

Hardened by the CCADD internship, they took a big leap from being interns to graduate students at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Science, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University.

During the internship, they were distilled into their purest passion for research in drug development, and combining cutting-edge technology with drug development was the idea that opened the door for both.

As much as they will align nicely with the rest of the team in terms of research interest, we are also excited that they will add a new of diversity to the already diverse CCADD family.

Again, CCADD congratulates them on having taken the important first step to their goals. CCADD will blow the wind at their backs so that they can sail forth and contribute to the greater good of the team and the SNU community at large.

In the first quarter of 2021, CCADD got off to a good start with a new project deal with Korea Ginseng Corporation (KGC).

Korea’s leading ginseng brand for over a century, KGC has a distinguished track record of making quality dietary products. CCADD, on the other side of the deal, has been receiving high marks on its clinical science expertise. So, the handshake between the two definitely holds the promise of achieving something big and previously unimagined.

And the promise is becoming real. Staring this March, KGC and CCADD set out on a project to develop a mobile healthcare application called ‘Care Now Q.’ Once complete, the mobile application will be the first in the market that utilizes data from medical checkups, direct-to-consumer genetic tests, and health survey results to recommend individualized health guidance and dietary supplement suggestions. For this ambitious project, CCADD will play an active role as a clinical expert and project manager, providing expertise and orchestrating the entire process. This project will be led by Yoomin Jeon (team leader), Jung-Hyun Won, and David Seung U Lee under the supervision of Prof. Howard Lee.

The stakes are high. This project will not only turn the idea of individualized health management into reality but also open the door for CCADD to a new area of research, moving forward.

March 2021 marks the end of CCADD's advisory to Idience's new molecule research.

Idience Co., LTD., a subsidiary of Ildong Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd. (a major pharmaceutical company in Korea), is a No-Research-Development-Only (NRDO) company that focuses on developing and commercializing novel oncology drugs. 

Particularly, IDX-1197, a potent poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors that causes synthetic lethality in cancer cells, has received the spotlight not only from the researchers, but from the investigators. Idience has successfully filed an investigational new drug (IND) for IDX-1197 to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year. If approved and marketed, IDX-1197 will be used as monotherapy or an add-on to other anti-cancer agents targeting multiple solid tumors.

CCADD played a key role in speeding up the clinical development process of IDX-1197. From January to March 2021, CCADD analyzed preclinical and clinical data on other PARP inhibitors already developed or under development. Besides, CCADD comprehensively reviewed the results of completed, ongoing, or planned studies of IDX-1197, and compared the results with those of other PARP inhibitors such as Olaparib, Rucaparib, Niraparib, and Talazoparib. The analysis laid the foundation for how CCADD could help Idience better navigate the complex drug development process. This consulting project was led by Siun Kim, Yesol Hong, and Jung-Hyun Won under the auspice of Prof. Howard Lee.

On balance, it was a great experience to have worked with Idience on this project, and CCADD gives its best wishes to Idience for a successful global clinical development of IDX-1197 in the near future.

Duhyeong Lee was a student researcher at the Center for Convergenece Approaches in Drug Development (CCADD) at the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University. Currently a mathematics and statistics double-major student at the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics, Korea University, Duhyeong joined CCADD through the 2021 Winter Internship program.