Seoul National University

The use of biologics is rapidly increasing as new drugs are approved for label expansions. Monoclonal antibodies, multispecific antibodies, and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are being implemented in an array of fields, including oncology, immunology, and neurology. As clinical demand for biologics increases, biopharmaceutical companies must ensure that they have the manufacturing capacity available to produce enough biologics. Creating adequate capacity for any therapeutic can be challenging, and the specialized technologies for manufacturing complex biologics require flexibility and agility in production processes. I will discuss how contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) ensure that biopharmaceutical companies have a partner with the speed, flexibility, and expertise necessary for successful drug development and manufacturing. Challenges of in-house capacity Fortune Business Insights estimates the global value for next generation biomanufacturing will be close to $40 billion by 2033. As the industry prepares for a period of growth, there is a desire to increase productivity and efficiency in biologics manufacturing. But as the biologics become more complicated, maintaining or increasing production efficiency becomes more difficult. Each class of biologics brings its own challenges, ranging from supply chain logistics to complex chemistry that must be consistent between batches. presented by Sponsored Post How PDPM Optimization Improves Facility Financial Performance Transitioning to PDPM models significantly shifted the healthcare industry. By replacing the RUG system, healthcare providers cut waste and more accurately reflect the care each patient received. By Medrina Additionally, new manufacturing facilities take time and money to build. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) calculates that it typically costs $2 billion and five to ten years to finish constructing, staffing, and certifying a new manufacturing facility. If companies opt for in-house manufacturing, these extended construction times require biopharmaceutical companies to begin building plants while clinical trials for promising therapies are underway. With the success rate of phase III clinical trials averaging roughly 55 percent, in-house manufacturing can be a gamble. Furthermore, biopharmaceutical companies must also contend with the potential introduction of a competitor therapy, changes in regulatory guidelines, and shifts in geopolitics, which can all contribute to deviations from the predicted demand for a biologic. Unfortunately, due to the unique and modality-specific technologies required to produce advanced therapies, repurposing facilities to develop another therapy is not always feasible. The difficulty of repurposing plants could leave companies with an expensive and underutilized facility, one that runs the risk of being divested later down the line. Contract developers and manufacturers: necessary and beneficial partnerships CDMOs are a solution to these obstacles. Contract developers and manufacturers are specialized partners that ensure production capacity exists for the biopharmaceutical companies developing life-saving therapies. By focusing on high-quality and reliable manufacturing of biologics, CDMO partnerships allow the industry to pool the necessary risks of biopharmaceutical manufacturing. But CDMOs are not all created equal, and biopharmaceutical companies should carefully consider their options. presented by Sponsored Post Top-Rated Practice Management Solutions for Med Spas Every wellness clinic is only as successful as the capabilities of its software. Here's where you can find the top-rated practice management solutions for med spas. By PatientNow One of the biggest benefits a CDMO partnership can offer is speed in facility construction. The best CDMOs should be able to bring construction times for building high-tech manufacturing plants down to as low as two years (compared to the five-to ten-year industry average). While two-year construction times are only found among top-tier CDMOs, having industry-leading speed available is a massive boon, improving manufacturing capacity and responsiveness. By partnering with agile CDMOs, biopharmaceutical companies can feel confident that they will always have the capacity to meet patient demand, address drug shortages, and respond to dynamic markets. Flexibility within both the facilities and the broader organization is another defining characteristic of a high-value CDMO. As a specialized development and manufacturing partner, CDMOs adapt to changing demands in a way that in-house operations may not. The best CDMOs will design plants that allow for efficient manufacturing across a range of molecules, including complex and emerging therapies such as ADCs. Furthermore, CDMOs should be prepared to seamlessly transition between different products as market demand changes. Flexible facilities and comprehensive capabilities make for a strong partner to biopharmaceutical companies seeking efficient and adaptable development and manufacturing services. Of course, speed and flexibility must not be achieved at the expense of quality. Meeting or exceeding regulatory standards and maintaining high-quality production across batches are foundational for every CDMO. But operational excellence will be found in companies whose dedication to quality extends beyond the facility floor. CDMOs need skilled teams capable of handling not only facility construction and validation, but also vendor management, tech transfers, strong client communication, and more. CDMO partnerships should therefore be assessed both on the output quality of their plants and their ability to deliver high-quality results across the entire company. Expanding future capacity starts today Investing in the development and commercial manufacturing of a new therapy will carry some degree of risk. But the right CDMO will manage the risk. As the industry continues expanding the availability and efficacy of biologic treatments, the need for strong CDMO partnerships will continue to increase. The complex chemistry and specialized technologies involved in biologics production are arguably becoming more difficult to create in-house. But it is never too late, or too early, to start engaging with a CDMO partner to enhance the speed and flexibility of your biologics development and manufacturing. Jack ChoiJack Choi is the founder and CEO of Anatomage Inc., based in California. Anatomage is a digital healthcare platform that specializes in bringing accurate medical solutions to healthcare providers and inspiring the next generation of health professionals across the globe. Choi is also as a research scientist at the Precision Machinery Design Center in Seoul University and adjunct professor at the Industrial Engineering Department of Dongkuk University. Choi earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Seoul National University and an M.S. in mechanical engineering and Ph.D., Engineering from Carnegie Mellon UniversityThis post appears through the MedCity Influencers program. Anyone can publish their perspective on business and innovation in healthcare on MedCity News through MedCity Influencers. Click here to find out how.

SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- On the 5th, LG AI Research signed a joint research agreement at the Global Lounge of LG Science Park in Magok, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, with Prof. Min-Kyung Baek from the school of Biological Sciences at Seoul National University to develop a "next-generation protein structure prediction AI." Continue Reading LG Creates Next-Generation Protein Structure Prediction AI for Drug Discovery Koo Kwang-mo, Chairman and CEO of LG Group Proteins are key biomolecular substances involved in all activities of the human body. To create a "digital cell map" that can be used throughout the entire process of identifying disease causes and accelerating new drugs and treatments discovery technology for predicting protein structures is essential. Global tech giants are advancing their protein prediction AI technologies, but they are still focused on predicting and designing single protein structures. Predicting "multistate" protein structures which exist in various forms in the human body due to environmental and chemical changes remains a challenge. Prof. Min-Kyung Baek, a world-renowned expert in protein structure prediction, co-developed "RoseTTAFold" alongside Prof. David Baker from the University of Washington, who was awarded last year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his AI-based research. In collaboration with Prof. Min-Kyung Baek's research team, LG AI Research aims to develop an AI model for protein multistate structure prediction by the end of the year, addressing current technological limitations. This breakthrough is expected to provide deeper insights into biological processes and accelerate drug development. "While AI is a powerful tool for predicting protein structures, its underlying principles are still not fully understood," said Prof. Min-Kyung Baek. "Through our joint research with LG AI Research, we aim to push protein structure prediction to a new level—one that incorporates verification and experimentation." Soonyoung Lee, Bio Intelligence Lab Leader at LG AI Research, added, "The complexity of protein structures is at the heart of incurable diseases like Alzheimer's, and unraveling them is a highly challenging task. By developing AI for protein multistate structure prediction, we expect to achieve breakthroughs in understanding disease mechanisms and developing new treatments—much like unlocking a lock." Meanwhile, LG expects that this joint research will further accelerate the discovery of Alzheimer's factors and the development of new drugs, which are currently being conducted in collaboration with The Jackson Laboratory (JAX), a U.S.-based nonprofit genomics research organization. Since early last year, LG AI Research has been collaborating with The Jackson Laboratory to develop predictive AI technologies for diagnosing and treating Alzheimer's and cancer. Koo Kwang-mo, Chairman and CEO of LG Group, stated in his 2025 new year address, " Through healthcare solutions and innovative new medicines, we aim to help people spend more time with loved ones," expressing his commitment to fostering the biology business as one of LG's future growth drivers. LG expects this collaboration to be a significant milestone in achieving results from the convergence of AI and Biology, which are part of its future growth drivers, ABC (AI, Bio, Cleantech). For more information, visit About LG Group LG Group is a leading global company representing South Korea, offering innovative products and services across various industries such as electronics, chemicals, telecommunications, and energy. Established in 1947, LG Group has grown into a world-renowned brand through its activities in these diverse fields. The company is committed to continuous research and development, focusing on innovation to enhance the quality of life for its customers. Emphasizing its role as a socially responsible enterprise, LG Group is striving to strengthen its competitiveness in the global market and achieve sustainable growth through its future portfolio in areas like AI, Bio, and Cleantech. The company is dedicated to realizing its vision of being a business that provides value to customers and society, pursuing this mission with unwavering determination. For more information, visit About LG AI Research Launched in December 2020 as the artificial intelligence (AI) research hub of South Korea's LG Group, LG AI Research aims to lead the next epoch of artificial intelligence (AI) to realize a promising future by providing optimal research environments and leveraging state-of-the-art AI technologies. And LG AI Research developed its large-scale AI, EXAONE, a 300 billion parametric multimodal AI model, in 2021. EXAONE, which stands for "Expert AI for Everyone," is a multi-modal large-scale AI model that stands out from its peers due to its ability to process both language and visual data. With one of the world's largest learning data capacities, LG AI Research aims to engineer better business decisions through its state-of-the-art artificial intelligence technologies and its continuous effort on fundamental AI research. For more information, visit . SOURCE LG Corp. 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BUSAN, South Korea, Nov. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Suicide, a leading global health concern, ranks fourth among young people. Although many studies have reported temporal variations in suicide risk, most are limited to Western countries. Addressing this gap, researchers from Korea and Japan in collaboration with other countries conducted a multi-country multi-city study to investigate variations in suicide risk based on the day of the week and national holidays, revealing key insights that could help form effective and targeted suicide prevention action plans. Continue Reading The study reveals that Mondays and New Year's Day have the highest suicide risk across multiple countries. These findings can guide more effective and targeted action plans for preventing suicides. Suicide is a pressing global public health concern, claiming around 700,000 lives in 2019 according to the World Health Organization, making it the fourth leading cause of death among young people aged between 15 and 29 years. Understanding the mechanisms of suicide is, therefore, essential for creating effective prevention strategies. Research has shown that suicide rates vary with the time of the year. Several studies have also reported short-term variations based on the day of the week and holidays. The "broken-promise effect theory" has been widely adapted to explain these variations. This theory states that people may postpone suicides in hopes of a new beginning when a cycle ends, such as on weekends or at the end of the year, while they may feel more vulnerable and hopeless at the start of a new cycle, such as on Mondays or New Year's Day. However, these findings cannot be generalized, as existing studies mainly focus on Western countries. To address this gap, an international research team consisting of Whanhee Lee (Assistant Professor, the School of Biomedical Convergence Engineering at Pusan National University, South Korea), Cinoo Kang (Doctoral Student, the Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, South Korea), Yoonhee Kim (Associate Professor, Department of Global Environmental Health, The University of Tokyo, Japan), and the Multi-City multi-Country (MCC) Collaborative Research Network investigated short-term variations in suicide risk concerning the days of the week and national holidays across various countries. "Applying a unified approach to various countries allows us to provide comparable results and better understand how suicide risk changes across different timescales and diverse cultures," explains Dr. Lee. Their study was published in The BMJ on October 23rd 2024. The researchers used an advanced statistical technique called standardized two-stage time series analysis to investigate suicide risk patterns. They analyzed data from 740 locations across 26 countries, gathered from the Multi-country Multi-city Collaborative Research Network database. This dataset comprised 1.7 million suicide cases, including daily suicide counts along with daily mean temperature data spanning from January 1971 to December 2019. The results revealed that suicide risk was highest on Mondays across all countries, though the effect of weekends varied. New Year's Day was associated with an increase in suicide risk in all countries, while Christmas showed a mixed pattern. Although there was an overall decreasing trend in suicide risk on other national holidays, the risk tended to increase after these holidays in most countries. Notably, the findings also showed that men are more vulnerable to variations related to the day of the week and New Year's Day compared to women. Highlighting the importance of this study, Dr. Lee remarks, "Our findings provide a better understanding of the temporal variations in suicide, which can lead to better evidence based-suicide theories." We hope that this large-scare study can lead to timely interventions, potentially saving countless lives. Reference Title of original paper: Association of holidays and the day of the week with suicide risk: multicountry, two stage, time series study Journal: The BMJ DOI: About the Pusan National University, Website: Contact: Goon-Soo Kim 82 51 510 7928 [email protected] SOURCE Pusan National University WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED