Kyung Hee University’s Global Center for Pharmaceutical Ingredient Materials is hosting a symposium on Wednesday for working-level novel drug developers and students pursuing careers in the field. Firms involved with the Gyeonggi-do Regional Research Center, a regional project that supports advancement of science and technology, have also been invited, the organizers said.

In July 2017, GPIM was selected as a GRRC business for a six-year research project to foster collaboration between business, academia and research in an effort to discover, develop and commercialize original technologies to vitalize small- to midsize pharma firms in Gyeonggi Province.

The GPIM symposium will take place at the university’s international campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. Topics will range from domestic and global firms’ synthetic and organic pharmaceutical ingredients, regulations for novel biopharmaceuticals development and future challenges. 




Speakers include Kim Hak-won, director of GPIM, and researchers and professors from other institutions. The director of Yuhan’s research lab will present the firm’s Lazertinib technology export and global innovative drug development strategy. A senior researcher at Hyundai Pharm will talk about the unmet needs of oral medicine for type 2 diabetes. Speakers will also present new drug discoveries from natural products and novel biopharmaceuticals using cutting-edge technology.

To secure global competitiveness of potential technologies, GPIM has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology to seek overseas expansion of its member firms as well as to carry out Korea-Vietnam joint research utilizing the latter’s indigenous pharmaceutical ingredients. It has also sealed another memorandum with University of Illinois at Chicago in the US.

Having entered the second year of the six-year project term, the center currently has 27 graduate degree students and nine doctoral researchers participating in research for discovering novel drug candidates and technology. So far, five graduate students have completed their studies, with one having moved on to a job at a collaborator firm.

Lmito Therapeutics, an emerging biopharmaceutical firm that joined the GPIM circle in the first year of the program, attained certification for its research facility and its status as a venture firm, as well as attracted investment from several angel funds, stabilizing its profit model in one year since its foundation.

RC Corp., another GPIM partner firm that mainly sells pharmaceutical intermediates, manufactures products with technology supported by GPIM.

Five firms newly joined GPIM in the second year of the project, of which three were firms that had previously sought advice on technology from the center.

ST Pharm, a Dong-A Pharmaceutical-owned company, has joined GPIM from the early stages of business to develop anti-inflammatory drugs with new synthetic compounds with spinasterol-glucose base. Since gaining a patent for the relevant material, ST Pharm is preparing for a full-fledged technology transfer. Cosmogen, a venture company that focuses on medical beauty research, is working with GPIM to discover novel form of dermatological products.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)