ISSUE 10

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Dear Colleagues,

In this issue of WKMJ, we interview Dr. Kyung Sun, a renowned cardiovascular surgeon and the current chairman of the Osong Medical Innovation Foundation. Medical research is a very expensive and time consuming process, which can hinder progress and easily exceed the expected costs.   K-Bio is an ambitious program to foster biotech hubs to be more efficient with modern infrastructure. While pharmaceutical industries and medical devices are essential for improving healthcare, the introduction of new therapies remains quite challenging.  With its vision to become a leading global bio cluster, the Osong Medical Innovation Foundation is at the forefront of Korea’s drive for biomedical infrastructure innovation.

WKMO has had a busy year with the regional forum in Seoul in February and the Annual meeting in Washington DC in June. In Seoul, the meeting was held at the Seoul National University Medical Center where we had the Chairman of the National Assembly, Dr. Ui-Hwa Chung, who was featured in a prior issue of WKMJ, participate. The DC meeting was held at the Halls of US Congress with special guest speakers: Congressman Charles Rangel, Mike Honda and Bill Pascrell. The topics discussed during the forum are extremely relevant and important today; in Seoul, we discussed healthcare in North Korea and in DC we focused on the various health disparities throughout the world. We had amazing speakers at both meetings and appreciate the sharing of their expertise. Hopefully it will make some headway in these disparities in brief future.

This is already the 10th issue of WKMJ and I must commend the staff of the WKMJ in producing a high-quality publication. Please share the magazine with your friends and colleagues and join us at our next WKMO meeting. As the summer Olympics are approaching, we wish the Korean athletes their best performance at the spectacular world gathering and that in the future the Koreas can march as one country.

Yours,

David Y. Ko, MD

Publisher

President of WKMO

Keck School of Medicine of USC

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Bioclusters, the geographic co-location of life science entities—including industries, academia, medical and research facilities, service providers, and financial investors—have emerged as a global trend. This is the result of the collaborative action led by increased competition and the productivity crisis the bio industry is facing to battle through the scientific innovation. Bioclusters have several key strengths which can be addressed as geographic, social and intelligent proximity.  Entities work closely together to effectively communicate and share their expertise and knowledge, creating an atmosphere for better collaboration and networking.

For this edition’s cover story, we had the opportunity to feature the Osong Medical Innovation Foundation and interview its chairman, Dr. Kyung Sun. Dr. Sun is a well-known cardiovascular surgeon and a professor at Korea University’s School of Medicine. He shared his personal story and provided insight and perspective on the Osong Medical Innovation Foundation and increasing growth of Korea’s biohealth industry.

New trends and current issues of the bio-health industry were featured in the special reports and biopharmaceutical articles. In the article from BioCentury titled “Korea Rise: New Strategies Transforming Korean Biopharma Landscape,” the writer examines the current status and recently established strength of the Korean pharma industry, which has garnered increased attention.

In this edition’s  “Brief View of the Latest Healthcare Industry,” we included major deals, developments and governmental policies occurring within the life sciences industry. Our findings identified an increase of M&As and a growing interest in the stock market. We have also gathered a list of upcoming conferences, symposiums, and forums that may intrigue our readers including the 6th New York Health Forum, which is to be held in September at The Yale Club of New York.

WKMJ has made major progress over the past few years and is celebrating the completion and publishing of our 10th edition. Thank you for your continued support. We will remain committed to our goal of always providing a quality journal for our readers. I hope that you enjoy our selection of articles and find them to be inspiring.  

Thank you.

DoHyun Cho, PhD

Editor in Chief

President & CEO of W Medical Strategy Group

Chairman of New York Health Forum