GemVax taps veteran Dr. Lee Jae-hong to lead neurodegenerative disease clinical development ... “Taking new drug development to the next level”

[Financial News]  GemVax & KAEL has appointed Lee Jae-hong, formerly a professor of neurology at Asan Medical Center, as its chief medical officer (CMO) to lead the development of treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. The move is seen as an effort to bolster clinical development expertise and execution as the company advances multiple new drug pipelines.
According to GemVax on the 3rd, newly appointed CMO Lee Jae-hong will oversee clinical development and operations in the company’s biotech division. In particular, he is expected to lead development strategies for treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, including progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease).
The CMO graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine and earned a doctorate in medicine from Korea University. He worked in the neurology department at Asan Medical Center for 34 years and served as director of its Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Center. He also served as chairman of the Korean Dementia Society, among other roles, and published a total of 253 academic papers.
The key question with this appointment is whether bringing on a clinical expert will lead to tangible development results. Neurodegenerative diseases are considered a challenging field when it comes to selecting patient groups and setting clinical assessment measures, making development strategy and clinical operations capabilities important.
GemVax plans to draw on the CMO’s clinical experience to strengthen its ability to manage clinical trials in Korea and abroad and flesh out its strategy for expanding indications.
A GemVax representative emphasized, “We will systematize global clinical development and accelerate the diversification of indications.”
The CMO said, “I will work to improve the quality and speed of clinical development and provide patients with hard-to-treat neurodegenerative diseases with practical treatment options.”
The biotech industry expects that having an expert with extensive clinical experience in neurodegenerative diseases oversee development strategy will help refine clinical trial design and strengthen global development capabilities. In particular, the view is that this could bring greater consistency to clinical strategy as the company advances multiple pipelines.


[email protected] Kim Gyeong-a Reporter