Former GSK GM Yoo-Seok Hong to head D&D Pharmatech

Has leadership experience in major multinational pharmaceutical companies including Teva-Handok and GSK

Will head the company under an independent representative system with founder Seulki Lee

Yoo-Seok Hong, New CEO of D&D Pharmatech

Yoo-Seok Hong, former General Manager of GSK Korea will be joining the leadership of the biotech company, D&D Pharmatech.

 

On the 9th, D&D Pharmatech had announced that the company has appointed Yoo-Seok Hong as its new CEO.

 

Hong is a seasoned expert with extensive experience in marketing and business management at multinational pharmaceutical companies.

 

Hong was as Marketing Director for Eli Lilly's osteoporosis treatment and Senior Director of Strategy in the Emerging Market Business Unit of Eli Lilly and Company, after which he served as General Manager at various Korean subsidiaries of multinational pharmaceutical companies including Lilly Korea, Teva-Handok, and GSK Korea.

 

In February 2018., Hong was appointed General Manager of Pharmaceutical in GSK Canada, then as the Vice President of the GSK headquarters in the U.S., and was in charge of commercializing the company’s innovative liver treatment from September 2020.

 

As a leader, Hong is considered to have played a significant role in elevating the status of Korean managers in the international market.

 

D&D Pharmatech was established in 2014 by Professor Seulki Lee of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

 

It has headquarters in Korea (Pangyo) and the U.S.

 

(Gaithersburg, MD), and has five U.S.

 

subsidiaries focusing on specific therapeutic areas, where it conducts global clinical research and development.

 

10 global clinical projects using new drug candidates that were developed by the company’s research team in Korea and abroad for neurodegenerative diseases, fibrotic diseases, and metabolic diseases are being tested at sites in the U.S.

 

and Europe.

 

The company’s treatment in development for Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is currently in a large-scale Phase II trial.

 

Recently, the company has expanded its business to biomarkers that can diagnose neurodegenerative patients and big data to analyze its cause.

 

D&D Pharmatech plans to present the proposal to appoint Hong Yoo-Seok as an inside director at the general shareholders' meeting on the 18th, and appoint Hong as CEO at the Board of Directors meeting.

 

Through the appointment, the company will be operated under an independent representative system with Dr.

 

Seulki Lee, the founder, and CEO overseeing the entire R&D business, and CEO Yoo-Seok Hong in charge of the company's business development, management, and operation.

 

The company anticipates that Hong will speed up the global technology export and commercialization of ongoing clinical projects.

 

On his appointment, Hong said, “I have high expectations for D&D Pharmatech’s core pipeline and believe in its market potential and possibility of success.

 

As CEO, I aspire to create a successful Korean global biotech model in which its three components - continuous discovery of new candidate substances, successful clinical development, and global commercialization – can operate in harmony.”