FROM THE PUBLISHER
The life sciences industry’s response to the current global COVID-19 pandemic has
highlighted the importance of innovation and drug development in the space of vaccines. It has also underscored our industry’s ability to come together and share resources, across borders, during a time of extreme need.
Since COVID-19 was first reported, scientists from all over the world have worked with remarkable speed to understand the virus and share findings and knowledge. Dr. Jerome Kim, the Director General of International Vaccine Institute (IVI), is one of the dedicated leaders who put enormous efforts into the battle with the pandemic. For this edition of the WAMJ, we interviewed Dr. Kim for the cover story.
IVI is a non-profit international organization that was founded to discover, develop, and deliver safe, effective, and affordable vaccines to children in any country in need. However, even IVI is currently disrupted by COVID-19 and many of the planned vaccination campaigns have been put on hold, as well as other mass campaigns and childhood vaccination programs.
Dr. Kim emphasized that we need to come together to combat this immediate threat in the world so that he and his organization can go back to providing more focused support to the population most suffering from shortage of vaccines for vaccine-preventable diseases. Throughout the interview, we were inspired by his passion and affection towards saving the lives of children by providing essential medical measures.
In addition to the cover story, new trends and current issues of the bio-health industry are featured in the biopharmaceutical reports and articles. In the articles by BioPharm Insight and BioSpace, writers examined the contemporary issues in the life sciences arena which have garnered increased attention.
WAMJ has made major progress over the past couple of years and is celebrating the completion and publication of the 22nd edition. We truly thank you our readers for your continuous support.
I hope that you enjoy our selection of articles and find them inspiring. Stay strong against COVID-19!
DoHyun Cho, PhD
Publisher
President & CEO of W Medical Strategy Group
Chairman of New York Health Forum
FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
We are proud to present this 22nd issue of the World Asian Medical Journal, and its cover story on Jerome Kim, M.D. Over the years, WAMJ has had the good fortune to meet, interview, and publish stories on a gratifyingly wide array of leaders in medicine and biomedical sciences. All of these individuals have made noteworthy contributions to human health and knowledge; many are truly world-renowned and justifiably so. However, only a few have achieved more than this issue’s featured Dr. Kim.
Among all the advances of public health, with the possible exception of improved water sanitation, nothing has done more good for people than vaccines. In fact, the only disease mankind can claim to have conquered was eliminated because Edward Jenner, a courageous 18th century physician, noticed that patients infected with cowpox somehow avoided infection with smallpox. That observation and the decision to deliberately inoculate a young boy with pus from cowpox blisters led nearly two centuries later to the eradication of what had once been a human scourge. No one is sick with smallpox today; with any luck at all, no one ever will be again. Smallpox vaccination is truly mankind’s triumph over a dread disease.
Dr. Jenner’s heritage lives. Our interviewee is an international expert on the evaluation and development of vaccines. His titles and distinctions are legion. He currently serves as the Director General of the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, South Korea. In his remarks, Dr. Kim enlightens us about the Institute and its uniquely valuable role in vaccine development and distribution.
Dr. Kim’s remarks about the invaluable role the military has played in vaccinology are equally edifying. He is a veteran himself and an adjunct professor of medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He served both as the principal deputy and later chief at the Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Pathogenesis at the Military HIV Research Program and as the project manager for the HIV Vaccines and Advanced Concepts Evaluation Project Management Offices. Dr. Kim led the Army’s Phase III HIV vaccine trial (RV144), the first demonstration that an HIV vaccine could protect against infection. During an era in which far too many fail to understand and recognize the debt we owe to our armed forces, Dr. Kim’s words should be treasured as a source of insight and wisdom.
It is an honor to have had the chance to speak with Dr. Kim, and we are confident you will find inspiration in his thoughts.
Joseph P. McMenamin, MD, JD, FCLM
Editor in Chief
EVP of W Medical Strategy Group
댓글