—Severance Aims to Establish Global Technology Network

On January 27, Severance Hospital hosted the second annual Severance Global Patent Fair at the Avison Bio-Medical Research Center (ABMRC).  One of the fair’s principle aims was to continue Severance’s efforts to establish a global technology network that will facilitate the transfer of its technologies internationally.  There were about 300 guests in attendance, including Yoon Jong-lok, Second Vice Minister for Science, ICT and Future Planning, Park In-suk, Director of Health Industry Policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and Dr. Lee Chul, President and CEO of Severance Hospital.  The Global Patent Fair also welcomed CEOs from medical IT and pharmaceutical companies, representatives from research centers and consulting firms, and science and technology officials from the Swiss and British embassies. Health Technology is widely seen as a strategic sector in promoting national growth, and university hospitals, with their human resources and capacity for research and development (R&D), play a central role in developing new medical technologies.  Severance Hospital, which has been investing in R&D for many years, owns around 300 patents; and in the past five years, it has transferred thirty-six different technologies to private industry.   At the Fair, a number of international companies and academic institutions with expertise in commercializing patents gave presentations on their strategies for successful technology transfers, including Yissum (Israel), NCVC (Japan), A*STAR (Singapore), and Imperial College London. Many of these presentations focused on actual cases of successfully commercialized patents from the pharmaceutical and biotech fields, including one by College of Medicine Professor Huh Jee-hoe (Department of Neuroscience) on his own pharmaceutical composite patent.  There was also an area where more than seventy patent applications submitted by Severance in the past year were on display, all of which are considered promising candidates for commercialization (generally Severance submits 120-130 patent applications per year). Yonsei officials believe the Patent Fair provided an invaluable opportunity to showcase Severance’s cutting-edge medical technology, while gaining new strategies for successfully commercializing its patents.  Furthermore, it contributed to Severance’s goal of establishing an international technology network and for continuing its advance into global markets.