Yuhan holds 4th YIP Networking Day to boost basic research collaboration

Yuhan held the 4th Yuhan Innovation Program (YIP) Networking Day on Friday at Willow House, a multipurpose cultural complex built to mark the company's centennial.

The event brought together more than 50 participants, including Chief Executive Cho Wook-je, R&D President Kim Yeol-hong, senior executives from the R&D division, key researchers and YIP principal investigators. Attendees reviewed the progress of ongoing research projects and discussed avenues for collaboration.

YIP is an open-innovation model focused on basic research that Yuhan has operated since 2022. It identifies creative ideas from basic-science researchers at domestic universities and public research institutions, funds their work, and channels promising results into follow-on partnerships with the company.

At this year's networking day, oral presentations and research poster exhibitions were held to facilitate the exchange of drug R&D information and explore potential areas of collaboration.

The 4th YIP added 13 newly selected research projects, bringing the cumulative total across all four rounds to 76 basic research projects supported. Of the projects that have concluded, Yuhan has identified six with strong drug development potential and is conducting follow-up research on them.

The event reflects Yuhan's strategy of building on the success of Lazertinib — its flagship blockbuster drug — by extending industry-academia-research collaboration further upstream into early-stage basic science, before the candidate compound phase, to secure foundational technologies for its future drug pipeline.

"New knowledge and creative ideas accumulated through basic research are the starting point and most important driving force behind innovative new drugs," Cho said. "We will continue to seek new scientific possibilities together through ongoing exchange and expand the collaborative foundation for creating innovative medicines."