Korea TechWeek Series – NZ-Korea Bio/HealthTech Outlook and Opportunities

Shin Jae Chang, Ph.D. is the President of Celltrion with 32 years of experience in bioindustry. Now as the Head of Plant III project TF, he is leading Celltrion’s projects for overseas manufacturing facility. Since joining Celltrion in 2003, Dr. Chang has been actively involved in the development of new products and biosimilars. Until 2018 March, as the head of Celltrion’s Biotechnology Research Institute, he had brought sharp management focus to several biosimilars and new products. Dr. Chang and his team successfully developed the world’s first antibody Biosimilar, RemsimaTM, which received approval in more than 80 countries across the globe including the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In addition to the world’s first antibody Biosimilar RemsimaTM, two other biosimilars, Truxima® (CT-P10), and Herzuma® (CT-P6) have been globally approved including EMA and US FDA as well. Prior to assuming his position at Celltrion, Dr. Chang had experience in developing and commercializing a variety of biologics at Green Cross Corporation in Korea including recombinant Hepatitis B vaccine, various plasma derived coagulation factors, and mammalian cell culture derived recombinant protein products. In addition, he has published extensively and holds a series of process optimization patents. Dr. Chang has obtained his Doctorate Degree from the University of Melbourne and Master’s Degree from Korea University.

Dr. Michael Moon has worked for almost 15 years at the International Cooperation Division at the Korea Institute for Advancement Technology (KIAT). KIAT is a government-affiliated business innovation agency under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE). he recently wrote a book entitled “KAIST Explains the Future of Bio-Health: The Opportunities and Challenges of Korea’s Bio-Health after Coronavirus Disease.” He was previously a planning coordination manager at the Daegu Regional Innovation Agency. He also worked as an associate professor at Kyungpook National University in Daegu, was an invited assistant professor at the University of Indiana-Purdue in Fort Wayne and worked at Daewoo Motor Company.

Diana Siew’s role in the NZ innovation environment is to support and help develop NZ’s medical technology sector to grow the economy through partnerships and collaborations between firms, researchers, clinicians/end-users and government.

Two complementary initiatives in NZ that underpin her sector manager role are the Consortium of Medical Device Technologies and the MedTech Centre of Research Excellence (MedTech CoRE). Diana co-chairs the CMDT and is an associate director of the MedTech CoRE, responsible for strategy and industry relationships.

A chemist by training, Diana has 20 years of experience in operational management and strategy development and implementation. She enjoys mentoring and coaching young science talent. Diana studied for her PhD, MSc (1st Class Hons) and BSc degrees at the University of Auckland.

Dr. Kevin Ross is CEO of Precision Driven Health, an award-winning research partnership applying data science to enable precision health. PDH establishes collaborations between clinicians, data scientists and technology companies, applying the latest advances in data analytics to generate health benefits through software tools. Kevin is also founder and chair of the New Zealand Data Science & Analytics Forum, a community of over 2,500 professionals, and Director of Research for Orion Health. He was previously Chief Scientist of Optimisation Modelling at Fonterra, Associate Professor of Technology and Information Management at the University of California Santa Cruz and a Principal Consultant for PA Consulting Group. Kevin has worked for NASA, Bell Labs, Eli Lilly and London Councils. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from Stanford University, and a BSc(Hons) from the University of Canterbury.

Kelvin has over 20 years of international business experience across a number of sectors including biotech, pharma, nutrition and FMCG. He is currently the Strategic Growth Director responsible for health sector engagements globally, and previously held a variety of roles at UniServices including Business Development Director (S.E. Asia) and Executive Director UniServices (Hong Kong) Limited.

Before returning to New Zealand, he served as the Deputy Director of the Asian Food Information Council (AFIC) and Executive Director of the Malaysian Biotechnology Information Centre (MABIC). In both roles, he engaged extensively with heads of state, government agencies, leaders of international foundations and United Nations agencies. Kelvin, who started his career in R&D focusing on protein engineering, also co-founded and successfully exited a biotech company.