Yonsei Pharmacy Student
THE
BLUE
VANGUARD 2016
Winter
Vol. 10 10 PUBLIC SECTOR Who Helps Us Use Medicines Safely? 16 COVER STORY Prospects of Pharmacists: Will Artificial Intelligence Help or Hinder Pharmacy Careers? 24 GLOBAL NETWORK An Exciting Tour to Canada's Top Pharmacy School
CONTENTS 4
CAREER OF
PHARMACIST
ISSUE STUDENT LIFE COLUMN EPILOGUE EDITOR’S
6 8 10
Taejeon, the Leader of Korean Pharmaceutical Distribution Industry Kim Wanjoo, CEO of C-TRI Science Talk with Professor Jungmin Han Who Helps Us Use Medicines Safely?
12 A Glimpse into Smart Drugs 14 Video Counseling System, is it Worth 16 20
the Fight? Prospects of Pharmacists: Wil Artificial Intelligence Help or Hinder Pharmacy Careers? Brexit and its Influence on Pharmaceutical Industry
22 Mi-saeng in Takeda CHC team 24 An Exciting Tour to Canada's Top Pharmacy School
26 The Big Data Influence on Health Care 28 The Drug and the Nobel Prize
NOTE
2016 VOL.10
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PHARMACEUTICALS
l a c i , t u n e c ma r a h P n TaeLeJaedo a re o K f o r e ry t The s u d n I on i t u b i r t s Di
YoungJay Im
lim_91@naver.com
I
n August of 2016, Blue Vanguard visited Jeonju to interview Mr. Youngseok Oh, the
vice chairman of a specialized pharmaceutical distribution company, Taejeon. Taejeon is the leading total health care company that specializes in distributing and marketing
medical supplies. Also, it has eighty years of tradition and has many affiliates, including TJ Pharm, O&K and AOK. Blue Vanguard received a very warm welcome from Mr. Oh
when we arrived at the company for the interview. He started off by introducing their up-to-date facilities.
BV : Please tell us about your experience prior to working at Taejeon. Oh : I grew up in a family which all my relatives including my parents, are pharmacists. Such environments highly influenced me to enter college of pharmacy, and it perfectly suited me. Upon graduating, I worked as an air force officer. During that time, I completed my master`s degree in management at Korea university. I also visited Japanese pharmaceutical company for a short time, because Korea`s pharmaceutical industry was highly influenced by the Japanese trend. Also, I worked as a pharmacist in Jongno. Thanks to the experience in Jongno, I learned ways to earn customers’ trust by giving reliable and credible information about drugs. My previous experiences allowed me to build a solid foundation of Taejeon group.
BV : I wonder what pharmaceutical distribution companies exactly do. Oh : There are about 50,000 clinics and 20,000 pharmacies in Korea.
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THE BLUE VANGUARD
Medicines are distributed to hospitals and pharmacies to be provided to the patients. Pharmaceutical distribution companies do business and distribution for pharmaceutical companies to prevent the waste of social resources. Distribution involves simple delivering. When sales is added to distribution, we call this upstream. Wholesales combine upstream and distribution, and our company takes part in this industry. However, I think that there should be a change of paradigm in the overall pharmaceutical distribution industry. We have to find a new value that emphasizes the importance of health. I would like to change the definition of pharmacy that consumers perceive. Pharmacists should broaden their roles and be more informed about lifestyle, dietary advice, and exercise therapy. Moreover, the concept of health, services and information should be added to the overall image of pharmacies. We will lead this work and try to find a business model.
PHARMACEUTICALS
BV : Are there any special activities you did to strengthen the competitiveness of Taejeon? Oh : I believe that individuals in a group need to have the same belief in order to become a strong group. The company becomes more competitive when the dream of the individual and the company are same. I think that this is what adds power to Taejeon. Furthermore, I place a high value on education and training. Even if one starts weak, his or her perseveration ultimately shapes the overall culture of the company. I tried to build a unique culture of Taejeon with the members of Taejeon. For instance, there is a future preparatory committee at our company that has been operating for 15 years. The committee regularly holds breakfast feast. At the feast, a speaker introduces and addresses a topic. Then, each individual discusses about the topic for one minute. I think that listening and speaking accurately are the two most important factors in communication; thus, I practice these skills every day. Also, DARAME day is the time to discuss and get an in-house education every last Saturday of the month for four hours. Moreover, we also require everyone to read assigned reading, discuss with fellow members and proceed a program called “success training”. I believe that individuals improving on their own would ultimately contribute to the overall success of the company.
BV : As the pharmaceutical distribution industry is growing, is there something unique to Taejeon`s business?
Oh : We are currently developing a business model called Order Station and Safety Station. Order Station is a system that delivers product directly to the patient’s house with customized consult from the pharmacist. A patient orders a product via application which doesn`t require the stock to be put in pharmacies. There is an advantage that patients can get direct advice on proper diet based on their lifestyle and the medicine that they are currently taking. It can possibly overcome spatial constraints between pharmacies and patients. Safety Station, with a ‘ER in pharmacy’ concept, hosts safety education regarding emergency situations or accidents at pharmacies. I think many of the nation`s pharmacies are able to operate like road-shops, so that they can change the perception of safety in our society.
BV : Are there any career opportunities at Taejeon for those who majored in pharmacy? If so, what are the qualifications? Oh : We always welcome pharmacists. Currently, there are about ten pharmacists working at our company. Pharmacists who hope to take part in Taejeon should come with passion to learn from scratch. Pharmacists at our company work in diverse areas including export, import and authorization. We also value individuals who have aptitude for marketing.
BV : Why are you so actively involved in TLC, the internship for pharmacy student? Oh : Taejeon has continuously educated pharmacist for over 20 years. Against the era of paradigm shift, we work to change the roles of pharmacists through the dedication of pharmacy students, so that they could give back to the community more efficiently. We invite guest speakers to hold lectures on humanity. We`ll look forward to receiving many applications from pharmacy students.
BV : Please give some advice to pharmacy students. Oh : Nowadays, when I talk to pharmacy students, they are greatly concerned about their career. Of course, one`s career is important. However, thinking about how to live a happy and satisfying life as a pharmacist seems significant as well. I hope that pharmacy students could become pharmacists who fully earn trust from their patients. Since trust cannot be replaced by AI, I suggest individual students devote their time to learn more about humanity, so that they become pharmacists who compassionately care and listen to patients. B
YOUNG SEOK. OH HE is...
1987–1991 College of Pharmacy,
Chung-Ang University
1992–1994 Master’s degree of Business 2005 2007 2016
Administration, Korea University Doctor’s degree of Marketing, ChonBuk National University President of TaeJeon Pharmaceutical Vice chairman of TaeJeon Group 2016 VOL.10
5
PHARMACEUTICALS
, o o j n a Kim W I R T C CEO of
Soyeon Kim
com
12@naver.
ssoyeon50
Wanjoo, ard met Kim u g n a v e lu med 6th, the B mpany na n August 1 ceutical co a rm a h p e y over the CEO of th its strateg d te a ti n C-TRI RI differe strategy. C-TRI. C-T wo-track” “T d lle ca e other in n, which is gjoo and th n ya competitio m a N on e in ncentrates ctories : on o factory co runs two fa jo g n , ya m lle a ady se rs n. While N ducing ste ro p Chuncheo y b s es. duct biomedicin usiness pro s on new lucrative b te a tr n l ce ir n v co as anti a n factory icines such d e Chuncheo m 0 0 2 out tions, ducing ab s medica C-TRI is pro s, diabete ill p re u le(drug for lood press XLC Capsu . cs agents, b ti io b ti an tor nerve drugs, and whose mo le p o e anticancer p r e (drug fo presentativ and Citrelin e most re th dementia) re a ) d lyze comes para system be products.
O
We C-TRI especially specializes in peptide pharmaceutical products C-TRI has strived for new drug development which fits to the trend. Proteins consist of long chains of amino acids and relatively short ones are called peptides. The bigger the size of products we aim to make, the more capital is needed, because they are hard to be synthesized. As peptides are small, they can be synthesized by simple chemical methods with small investment. However, synthesis process is extremely complex that other people cannot rush into this field easily. Lastly, peptides have very broad availability such as antibiotics, anticancer drug, and digestive medicine depending on synthesis method. Therefore, C-TRI has concentrated on peptides for three reasons : financial advantage, high barriers to entry, and wide range of functionality.
6
THE BLUE VANGUARD
Balance between finance and business is important From the beginning, my goal was to make Korean medicine business as good as that of the developed countries. Normally, developed country’s medicine industry has been started from the research by scientists. However, in Korea, most of the medicine industry starts from making generics and profits. Although our medicine companies are good at sales, research level is lower than advanced country for this reason. So I wanted to build a medicine company which starts from research and the “C-TRI” is the one. But, in order to be a maintainable company, C-TRI needed not only research but also high level of finance by sales. I was confident on research but actually ignorant about the finance and business. Before establishing business in C-TRI, the work experience at medicine company such as “Hanmi” taught me many
PHARMACEUTICALS
business methods. When there is a good balance between growth engine and finance stability, the company would be maintainable. ‘Continuance possibility’ is pretty important for the company and I think that the period before I established the company was like a training process for making a maintainable company.
Biotechnology is a hot issue at home and abroad The medicines so far are usually chemical medicines mixed with chemical substances. But the problem is that the chemical field is nearly exhausted because scholars all over the world had studied it for a long time. Working on the goldmine is easy when it was just found, but the deeper the goldmine is, the harder mining would be. As pharmaceutical companies try to make chemical medicines which are already exhausted, it takes a lot of money and cannot be accomplished much. So, the biomedicine has appeared as an alternative choice. The market of biomedicine is now a blue ocean. It’s a new area and will last long. I think biomedicine market would not even be exhausted, because we cannot know everything about the life which is extremely complicated. But actually, the extent of investment is much bigger than that of chemical medicine. As mentioned above, the significant issue is high cost and difficulty of handling, because we do not know principles of our body well enough, and our inner body consists of high molecules, while making chemical medicines is easy since it has a small molecular structure.
Developing a new drug is like running a long marathon Therefore, you must not think of it as a short haul. Rather, you must define a clear goal, have endurance to keep that goal, and a mentor who is able to guide you through the way is also needed. Germany’s education is fundamentally different from Korea’s. The goal of Korea’s education is to raise a technician. Whereas, Germany’s education is based on philosophy. When entering a pharmacy school in Germany, questions for students are quite philosophical
such as why they started to study medicine. Such question, which was one of the first questions I was asked when I went to Germany, rather shocked me. This opened my eyes to German education laying weight on the essence of learning and philosophy rather than raising a technician. To me, the mentor who guided me through was my academic adviser in Germany, Professor Kreuzkamp. There are two reasons I give lectures in many universities : to let you know that there is a right path and to walk that right path together.
Advice for pharmacy students Pharmacy isn’t just a study which teaches function. It is of life. I wish pharmacy students could think that they did not enter college of pharmacy to become a technician, but to learn study. Diseases are continuing to develop. With the war between the human race and diseases (diseasemedicine-resistance-new medicine), the most important point is the development of new medicine, and the person with such serious responsibilities are pharmacy students. That is why the development of new medicine is the best advice to students. Later in life, when you get older, you’ll have the time to look back in life and think “did I live a successful life?”. Out of the two answers of “I will re-live my life even if I have the chance to go back in time” or “I will live a different life”, if you chose to re-live your life, then you have lived the best life. I graduated from college of pharmacy, have a pharmacist’s license, but I have never used it. I have put all my eggs in one basket, the basket of research and developing new medicine; if I have the chance to choose, I will re-live my life. That is why I dare to say that all students should live my life.
The final goal of C-TRI The object of C-TRI is entering global market with our own products through continuous research and development. I hope someday, any of national pharmaceutical companies become popular like Novartis or Pfizer. B
2016 VOL.10
7
PROFESSOR
Science Talk with Professor Jungmin Han “Do something that others have not done before!” Yulseung Sung
s.yulseung@yonsei.ac.kr
Brief Career
What was the reason behind your decision to come back to the university from Imagene, a pharmaceutical company? There was no big reason. It was only that I finished my exception military service at Imagene. I have received my PHD and served my military duty at that company. It was originally a bencher company that produced antibiotics but it started to formulate protein medication at the time. I was in charge of the formulation and organization of the protein medication. At first, as my academic background belongs to the Basic Science field it was hard and it was impossible to suddenly start producing new drugs. Don’t you think? It was a completely different field but in that process, I have learned how to develop a bio-pharmaceutical product successfully, which is a completely different issue from the original chemical drug production. Starting from research, I have stayed for 7 years, even after I finished my military service.
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THE BLUE VANGUARD
1993-1997 Department of Life Science, POSTECH, B.S. 1997-1999 Department of Life Science, POSTECH, M.S. 1999-2002 Division of Molecular and Life Science, POSTECH, Ph.D. 2002-2008 Principal Investigator, Imagene, Co. LTd. 2008-2011 Research assistant professor, Seoul National University 2011-2013 Research associate professor, Seoul National University 2011-2013 Principal Investigator/group leader Medicinal Bioconvergence Research Center, Seoul National University 2013-Present Associate professor, WCU Integrated OMICS for Biomedical Science, Yonsei University 2013-Present Associate professor, College of Pharmacy, Yonsei University 2015-Present Bio-convergence major chair, Integrated Science & Engineering Division, Underwood International College, Yonsei University I believe normally students stay in the university for their exception military service. Is there a typical reason you went to a company? There are various ways in pursuing military service exceptionally. Many male students will be interested in this subject. One can go to a company after fulfilling Master’s Degree or a PHD or one can be part of the university’s research team and work at the same place where he/she received the degree. In my case, I went to a company after finishing PHD program. It was not important for me to whether to stay in school or go to a company because it was not difficult to go back to university or company so I just proceeded naturally.
PROFESSOR
As a non-pharmacy student, what do you think about students of college of pharmacy? As you probably know, many professors in college of pharmacy have a large variety of background. Moreover, I am already a part of the college of pharmacy. Therefore, I think it is not important whether you have studied in college of pharmacy during undergraduate. Pharmacy itself is a field where many different subjects have to come together and it is critical and necessary to make a research team with people with different backgrounds. In that side of view, drug production is not a job only for pharmacy students. It must be a broader issue with people from different fields working together. Showing synergy by working together will derive a special opportunity. Would you be able to introduce your research field to us? To be simple, inside our body, how amino acids are transported and signaled to maintain our life is the key point of my research. Especially, my work is focused on cancer. My reserach starts from a main question: “What is the difference between a normal cell and a cancerous cell?” I focus on one of many differences which is the metabolism of a cell. Cancer cells need many energy and compartments so they metabolize at a high rate. In a clinical point of view, I am trying to come up with a breakthrough strategy of curing cancer. Until now, all of the target-specific cures antagonize the signaling of cancer cells believing that if the over-activated signaling system is blocked, cancer cells will die naturally. However, signaling cascade is extremely complex, and even if one signaling pathway is blocked, the cell might have another compensating signaling system. Moreover, certain cancer cells develop drug tolerance. As there are many problems in original drugs, I focused my attention on another difference which is the metabolic rate. If metabolic system is broken, a cell can do nothing but die. Therefore, a more efficient way in killing cancerous cells are targeting their metabolic system. Which metabolic system? The most unpopular subject is the amino acid metabolism. Although amino acids are the very first chapter of every Biochemistry book, people really do not know much about it. People know about their function but do not know about the origin and the mechanism of their function. I am interested in how amino acids move around the cell and is used for cancer cell metabolism.
If that process is understood, it will be a new target of signal pathway for a drug development. Therefore, if this is successful, this drug will be completely innovative. What is your aim and your dream? This is a question that I frequently receive from students. I have many aims and dreams. As I am a person who study basic science and research drugs, my biggest wish is to produce a new drug successfully. Seeing my new drug saving at least one life, will make me feel like I have done everything I should do. This is just a dream. Realistically, my aims are, if I earn much money, to construct my own research facility. Personally, I do not know when, but I am eager to establish a private research facility and support many people to research on the topic that they want. Also, child hospital is one of my interest. I believe building and working in a child hospital is another way of saving lives other than producing new drugs. Do you have any last words for Yonsei Pharmacy students? Not only for pharmacy students, I want to tell every students 2 things. Students are often afraid and unsure about their future. However, according to my personal experience, if one focuses with one thing that they like, in any cases and in any field, that person will be noticed and recognized. This year’s Nobel prize winner was researching on the same area for over 40 years. It is the same thing. Life is a long journey, what will happen in next two years of your life is actually not that important. The important thing is where you are in the future. Your career path is amazingly various. You can go to a company, study abroad, and so on. How you are treated right now is not really important. So please take a good deep breath and think about your future and be focused on what you want to do. Secondly, Korean education in the past and in the present is uniform. Thereafter, students’ paradigms are extremely thin. Students cannot think about their career widely. What I want to say is that I do not want you to follow others. I want you to choose a unique pathway. If you pursue this, you will naturally be the professional of that field. Please if you have any trouble or worry anything you want to talk about, come by my office, I will always be welcoming you warmly. B
2016 VOL.10
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PUBLIC SECTOR
Who Helps Us Use Medicines Safely ? Seungjin Lee
seungjin0801@naver.com
T
he Korea Institute of Drug Safety & Risk Management (KIDS) was established according to the regulation of Article 68-3 of Pharmaceutical Affairs Act to collect, analyze and generate drug safety information in April 2012.
The institute is looking forward to contributing in national health quality improvement by efficiently managing
information related to adverse drug event and drug safety. Since medicines have both benefits and risks, exertions to figure out and minimize the adverse drug events are enormously required. The Blue Vanguard visited the KIDS to interview Eunsun Noh, the team leader of the drug safety information office.
Q. What is the major duty of Korea Institute of Drug Safety & Risk Management and Office of Drug Utilization Review? The KIDS manages drug safety related issues by collecting, analyzing and evaluating drug safety information. It ultimately provides drug safety to the public. I work in ‘Office of Drug Utilization Review’. While the KIDS prevents, manages, analyzes, and assesses drug safety information, the department I work in especially has been instrumental in preventing drug side effects. Our main duty is to develop Drug Utilization Review (DUR) criteria. In other words, we provide lists of drugs with drug-drug interaction, contraindication during pregnancy, etc that pharmacists and doctors must check when prescribing and dispensing. Q. Why did you decide to pursue a career in the KIDS? I first learned pharmacoepidemiology as a student in the United States. I learned how to perform an observational study, in particular determining whether there is an association between use of medication and adverse events. At the meeting of the international society for pharmacoepidemiology, I had a chance to attend the lecture of Jerry Avorn, a professor at Harvard University and an expert of epidemiology. I was moved by his speech. Doctors, pharmacists, and even pharmaceutical
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THE BLUE VANGUARD
companies had no alternatives but to focus mainly on the effectiveness of the drugs. However, as we know that medicines could be poisonous, medicines have both pros and cons. I believed that taking care of side effects of medicines is very important, and thus I hoped to work at the KIDS. Q. When do you feel most rewarded in your job? The development of DUR criteria is the process of becoming a standard for safe drug usage. Since available information about newly approved medications is limited and the doctors and pharmacists may not be fully familiar with them, I think providing DUR criteria especially for new drugs is important to ensure safe drug use. I feel most rewarded when I develop DUR criteria for new drugs. It may help to expand environments that promote the safe use of medications. Q. What is the hardest part of your job? Unlike private enterprise, public institution established according to the regulation of the Article must be in line with statutory purposes. Therefore, when we carry out some tasks, the procedure is complicated, and it sometimes takes time until social consensus. Furthermore, it is a pity that we are short of budget and staffing when we need to enlarge the projects for drug safety out of necessity.
PUBLIC SECTOR
Q. What is the relief of Injury from ADR, and does it work well? The relief of Injury from ADR is a compensation system for death, disability and hospital treatment for victims who use drugs with properly as prescribed. The system indicates that the government admit drug side effects could occur due to characteristic of medicines and patients even though victims use drugs as prescribed. The relief of Injury from ADR is the safety net the nation provides. The relief of Injury from ADR was initiated as the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act revised in 2014. Starting from the death compensation report, relief measure scheme is expanding its scheme to disability and funeral compensation in 2016, as well as the medical treatment fees in 2017.
Q. Do you think the DUR is well promoted to the public? In South Korea, the DUR has been established rapidly with the aid of advanced IT. The Korean Food and Drugs Administration provides the DUR information in a form of notice and announcement to the public. However, it may not be easy for people just to access the Korean Food and Drugs Administration homepage and check the information. We will encourage people to raise awareness on the DUR and help them to build good habits in safe drug usages.
Q. What is your ultimate goal and vision in the KIDS? There is a classic example of the drug safety issue. In 1957, thalidomide, a treatment for morning sickness in Europe, was invented in Germany. European society was immensely
shocked when the babies fed with thalidomide were born with gross abnormalities. In the same period, however, the enrollment request was pending approval in the United States. The examiner Dr. Kelsey delayed the permission and continuously asked for more safety data about the medicine. Like Dr. Kelsey, I want to try to protect the public from drug-related risks by makinga an upstream barrier. Furthermore, I want to develop and enlarge what I am working on now, examining safety information which can be carelessly missed and letting people take medicines carefully.
Q. What advice would you give to pharmacy students considering their future careers in KIDS? When you make career decisions, the most important thing is ‘experience’. It is crucial for students to build up experiences at various fields, such as public institution, hospital, pharmacyor pharmaceutical company. Also, keep thinking about which jobs
make your heart flutter. Since pharmacists working in public institution work for the country and its citizens, they need to be full in commitment and enthusi asm. In addition, it is crucial to broaden social scope to communicate efficiently with people from diverse field.
Q. What do you want to say to the public as the only public institution managing drug safety? Develop interests in medicines you take. People who are interested in medicines are more likely to observe side effects. Therefore, you can take medicines more safely when you realize that medicines may have side effects. For instance, taking statins for hyperlipidemia treatment can rarely cause myopathy. In this case, patients must go to the hospital to see a doctor urgently. However, people who are unaware of this phenomena might easily think that they are sick for another psychological or physical reasons and end up with taking other unnecessary drugs. If any side effects occur, you can report adverse drug events on the KIDS homepage. The collected reports could produce meaningful results related to drug safety and be reflected in drug labels. So, reporting adverse events could prevent side effects. To use medicines safely, it is crucial to have interest in what medications you take and to know precisely by consulting doctors and pharmacists with any questions. B
2016 VOL.10
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NATIONAL ISSUE
A Glimpse into Smart Drugs SeoBin Park
jensbpark@yonsei.ac.kr
W
hy are students so obsessed with receiving good grades? The pressure they feel most likely comes from the competitive environment they live in. Nowadays, as the society continuously demands for competition, people use every conceivable means to acquire the best results. Accordingly, parents’ extreme anxiety and ambition toward raising their kids well have instead created crucial side effects. To meet the high expectations of the parents, many Korean students preparing for the College Scholastic Ability Test have suffered from severe depression and started taking what is so-called the “smart drugs”. According to Harvard Business Review, up to 20% of Ivy League college students have already tried out smart drugs as well. Clearly, the use of smart drugs is growing in popularity worldwide. The serious part of this issue lies in that, people manage to get these pills without a proper prescription and are not aware of the adverse effects.
Introduction
Then what exactly are these smart drugs? More professionally known as nootropics, smart drugs are pills that enhance cognition, particularly executive functions, memory, motivation, and much more for learning. They are thus usually prescribed to people with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to help them be able to sit still for longer periods of time and focus their attention on a single task. ADD and ADHD are heterogeneous behavioral disorders, and therefore the exact cause is not known, yet multiple possible etiologies exist. For instance, people with ADD or ADHD are found to have certain areas of the brain smaller compared to those of normal people. Moreover, other studies suggest that ADD and ADHD have something to do with a deficiency or dysfunction in certain neurotransmitters, such as catecholamine, dopamine, and norepinephrine. Some examples of nootropic drugs that help with this functional disorder include amphetamine, methylphenidate, racetam, and modafinil.
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THE BLUE VANGUARD
Mechanism
Amphetamine, more commonly known as Adderall, is one of the most popular stimulants used for the treatment of attention deficit related disorders. Adderall promotes the release of catecholamine (referring to aromatic amines like dopamine), while inhibiting the reuptake of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. Amphetamine and dopamine are similar in structure, so the former can enter the presynaptic neuron via dopamine transporter (DAT) or by diffusing through the neuronal membrane directly. Once amphetamine is inside the presynaptic neuron, it enters the storage vesicle via vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2), which releases dopamine into the cytosol in exchange. As the cytosolic dopamine concentration increases relative to the synaptic cleft’s, DAT facilitates the reverse transport of dopamine from the presynaptic neuron to the synapse. Furthermore, as amphetamine can also competitively inhibit the reuptake of dopamine back into the presynaptic neuron from the synaptic cleft, the overall dopamine concentration in the synapse area elevates, resulting in the increased postsynaptic activation.
NATIONAL ISSUE
when ingested with alcohol or other drugs. Nevertheless, many students continue to take study drugs without knowing the serious health consequences associated with them.
Figure 2. Chemical structure of amphetamine.
Figure 3. Chemical structure of dopamine.
Conclusion
Figure 1. Mechanism of amphetamine.
Pros and Cons When this activation of the nerve cells within the brain and the spinal cord takes place, people feel more calm and awake. As mentioned above, smart drugs particularly improve executive functions, including motivation, reasoning, and memory, so individuals are able to focus more on information that is important and relevant. Under the guidance of a doctor, nootropics could be effectively used to overcome attention disabilities. Due to the benefits these pills provide, increasing number of students have started abusing study drugs to drastically improve their grades. However, if people with normal dopamine level take these pills, they could reach the state of euphoria due to excessive dopamine accumulation in their brains. Once dopamine is all used up, students are likely to crash and experience exhaustion and even depression. Ironically, individuals could also get distracted by taking study drugs; that is, they could be focused on other things like cell phones instead of studying. Moreover, smart drugs have short-term risks like increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, nervousness, and insomnia; long-term abusive use could lead to addiction, neurotoxicity, and possibly death as well. These pills are especially more dangerous
As of now, the use of these stimulants to inappropriately increase productivity for studying seems unethical, for they are meant to be prescribed only to people with ADD or ADHD as a cure and may cause unwanted secondary effects. Still plenty of questions on the extent of effectiveness and adverse effects of these drugs remain unanswered. The fact that even the world’s safest study pill modafinil is proven safe only for its short-term use clearly shows that much research still needs to be done. While there is no substantial evidence that prolonged use of study drugs are harmless, is it right or appropriate to dose the students with these drugs just to make them excel in their studies? B
2016 VOL.10
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NATIONAL ISSUE
Video Couseling System, is it Worth the Fight? SooJung Kim
S
helenkim1212@naver.com
ince last May, voices opposing to the introduction of Video Medication Counseling System has been growing among pharmacists.
Video
Medication Counseling System allows patients to receive medication
counseling through the screen which patients makes video calls to pharmacists, similar to a vending machine. After that, they can buy drugs which the pharmacist
selects with the help of this machine. This system can be installed outside pharmacy and is operated all time. It was designed by a pharmacist who thought this would be convenient for patients, especially for those who need medications
at night times and live in secluded areas. However, to start this system, revision of the pharmaceutical affairs law must be preceded. Hence, the government
made a pre-announcement regarding this as a part of its deregulation policies. Four medical organizations including pharmacists committee strongly opposed to this idea, but the debate is still going on.
Video Medication Couseling System is made for the patients’ sake! Unlike the medical law, the pharmaceutical law does not limit selling drugs face to face. If face to face counseling was so important, why would written medication instructions be widely used? There is not much difference between face to face and video counseling system. Some say that the quality of video call might not be adequate, but with the help of the latest technology, we can guarantee its quality. Why do we have to drag along policies like operating night time and holiday pharmacies when we can introduce new ways? Also, we have already carried out the test operations and people gave positive responses. Worrying about the conditions of medications is not needed as the machine’s system takes charge of it.
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THE BLUE VANGUARD
NATIONAL ISSUE
It violates the basic principles of the pharmaceutical law! The principle of pharmaceutical law is face to face counseling. In 2012, video medication counseling system legislation bill was submitted. However the Supreme Court dismissed it for the reason that it violated the current law. This incidence itself reveals how significant ‘face to face counseling’ is to pharmacists and the patients. There are ongoing projects related to night and holiday time pharmacies. We are already aware of that increasing accessibility is urgently needed. To solve this problem, we should concentrate altogether on the ongoing projects, rather than on starting a new one and wasting resources. Also, the condition of medications is a very important matter which is strongly related to people’s health. Machines are not trustworthy enough to entrust people life on it. Even if they have condition maintaining programs, their reliability can only be lower than that of the licensed pharmacists. Whose responsibility is it if the machine gives out wrong or spoiled drugs due to malfunctioning? Finally, some say this legislation might trigger the privatization of health care.
Pharmacists are showing distrust towards the government which puts emphasis on convenience and economic efficiency, unlike the former government which gave priority to safety. 13 types of medications are already being sold at convenience stores to expand access. The fact that those medications can be bought at all time almost everywhere leaves us to the question whether this legislation is actually needed. People guess that the government is pressing this matter ahead even with the strong oppositions because this is a way to arrange the introduction of other policies such as telemedicine system and medication parcel service. I agree that the expanded access is required, but there is no need to go through the strong disapprovals when there are other ways to do it. It is true that pharmacists have not reacted actively to other policies so far. Hence, rather than opposing unconditionally, we should work out novel ways to enhance the existing policies and ultimately, solve the problem. B
2016 VOL.10
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COVER STORY
s t s i mac areers?
s t c r e a p acy C s m h r a o P Pr of Help Or Hinder Ph ence
Will
tellig n I l a ici Artif
DoHyun Lee
dhleeaa@yonsei.ac.kr
O
ne of the most debatable scientific issues in the first half of 2016 was the Go match between AlphaGo from
Google DeepMind and Se Dol Lee, the Go world champion. Initially, people casted doubt on the machine’s
ability. However, despite the high expectation on Lee, AlphaGo, unexpectedly, won the game by 4-1; a
newly made robot has beaten the world champion. Not only did the result surprise the public, but it also was an indication of beginning of the artificial intelligence era.
Regarding artificial intelligence, pharmacists nowadays would question themselves, “Could my job be
replaced by artificial intelligence?” At first glance, this assumption may sound probable, however, upon careful examination of various studies and surveys, the complete replacement of robots seems unfeasible.
Along with technological advancement, Michael Osborne from Oxford University researched about “The Future
of Employment: How susceptible are jobs to automation”. Interestingly, out of 336 different occupations, the
ranking of the three different groups of pharmacists varied: ‘pharmacy and other dispensing assistant’ positioned
in 42nd, ‘pharmaceutical technician’ in 47th, while ‘pharmacist’ was in 352nd. These three groups differ in their professions: ‘pharmacy and other dispensing assistant’ and ‘pharmaceutical technician’ mainly fill in prescriptions,
while ‘pharmacists’ promote new drugs, or collaborate with other health and medical care providers. The study reveals that machines will soon take over the pharmacists’ repetitive work, such as prescribing and medication
counseling, reflecting that pharmaceutical careers will encounter a new aspect. Adding to that, the main task of
pharmacists should not be limited solely to prescribing. Considering these factors, then, what is the correlation between artificial intelligence and pharmacists? And to what extent will technology affect pharmacy prospects?
Retail Pharmacists Speaking of pharmacists, people generally think of retail pharmacists first in South Korea. Unfortunately, retail pharmacists are most susceptible to the appearance of technology since robots are gradually replacing their tasks. For instance, like Watson from IBM possesses patients’ information and medical records, compounding robots could connect all the information together and provide the most appropriate prescription based on the patients’ symptom just in a few nanoseconds. Such an
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artificial intelligence allows patients to receive drugs in a more accurate and rapid manner. In fact, compounding robots did not make any error during 350,000 medicines compounding in California, whereas pharmacists made a few. Since robots are more delicate and less time-consuming in counting, bottling, and labeling medications, replacement of artificial intelligence seems quite plausible.
COVER STORY
Clinical Pharmacists On the contrary, technological advance applies differently in the case of clinical and hospital pharmacists. Clinical pharmacy is now a new discipline. Clinical pharmacists are mainly patient-oriented but not drugoriented; their ultimate goal is to improve quality of drug therapy. Although the roles of clinical pharmacists are not that dominant in hospitals of South Korea, it is quite different in the United States. Pharmacists in such an area could form a better and stronger bond with patients, which technology cannot. Machines are unable to express empathy, compassion, sympathy, or collaborate with other health care providers. Sharing of emotions corresponds only on human. Clinical pharmacists monitor patient responses, suggest drug therapies, and sometimes even conduct costbenefit analyses. They can let the artificial intelligence machine to conduct part of their works. Ultimately, clinical pharmacists can spend more time in direct patient care and collaboration with physicians. In the States, clinical pharmacists play important roles in health care areas, so the two experts could possess different perceptions in patient health care. However, this does not correspond to Korean system due to the separation of medical and pharmaceutical faculties. The human relationship becomes problematic in the case of clinical pharmacies. Since clinical and hospital pharmacists spend more time with patients under technological assistance, physicians may be anxious and worried about their loss of independence and professional autonomy. Therefore, for clinical pharmacists, although the technology does not not threat them as much as it does on retail pharmacists, they encounter another obstacles. In order to solve the problem, they need to set a common goal that satisfies all of the faculties. Moreover, most importantly, pharmacists should be adept in tasks provided and be able to increase the confidence level.
Hospital Pharmacists Regarding toxic drugs, technology assists hospital pharmacists, in the sense of mixing toxic compounds instead of human. For example, there was a drug containing substance that causes female infertility under long-term exposure. In that case, the machine could do the work for the pharmacists to protect female pharmacists from the exposure. Artificial intelligence, including big data, can also benefit hospital pharmacists because the robot can diagnose with high efficiency. To sum up, the optimum method is to combine the benefits applied to different fields of pharmacists and reduce the shortages simultaneously. It is evident that while the machines with artificial intelligence analyze drug-drug interactions and make recommendations, pharmacists are able to spend more time with patients, provided that the collaboration among health care personnel is successful.
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COVER STORY
18
Problems Encountering
Conclusion
As “Fourth Industrial Revolution� was the topic of the 46th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the world is, indeed, focusing on artificial intelligence. Thus, the intervention of artificial intelligence in pharmaceutical profession seems unavoidable; it is sad to consent that some work done by pharmacists are decreasing and replaced by robots. Except for the benefits of artificial intelligence mentioned above, followings are the concerns aroused by the emergence of artificial intelligence. First of all, as robots replace retail pharmacists, unemployment rate will ultimately increase. This is a loss of knowledge in national perspective. Due to the replacement, the number of retail pharmacists would remarkably decrease. Maybe only a few pharmacists will stay in the pharmacy in the future. Moreover, confidentiality becomes problematic. New Scientists announced that it would share patients’ medicinal records with NHS until 2017. Although the purpose of information sharing is to develop the artificial intelligence, personal information may be abused and be hacked. In addition, what if the machine is malfunctioning? For instance, in the retail pharmacy, if the machine breaks, there are no enough pharmacists to take over the job immediately, since the robots are too fast and keen. Although artificial intelligence is a growing industry, if it breaks, it is human who need to repair the machine. Another human resources need to be trained under artificial intelligence era.
In conclusion, expansion of artificial intelligence industry is most likely to automate dispensing operations and routine clinical decisions in the community pharmacy setting. Pharmacists themselves should also be aware of the power of technology since it can always replace simple works. Therefore, not only need to become experts, pharmacists also have to possess knowledge in other subject areas, such as business and humanities. Expertise, of course, is utmost important, yet the fundamental factor that is essential for pharmacists. This demonstrates that if they only concentrate in prescribing and selling drugs, the future of pharmacists is no longer auspicious. Once considered as occupation receiving high income and being respected, pharmacists now should approach their works in wider scopes, in order to maintain the career. To have optimistic prospects, as future pharmacists, we should consider the roles we should take in the future. Should the artificial intelligence dominate the world, what sort of tasks would be remaining, newly produced, or disappeared? Similar to animals that have been evolved in order to adapt to the new environment, we, the future pharmacists, should take action and view the world in different perspectives, recognizing the differences and optimizing the outcomes. B
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INTERNATIONAL ISSUE
Brexit And Its Influence On Pharmaceutical Industry Chaeyeon Won
sophiachaeyeon@gmail.com
O
n June 23rd 2016, 51.9% of British people voted for Brexit, which refers to Britain exiting European Union. David Cameron, the prime minister of Britain, had promised for conducting a vote on Brexit and he kept it in 2016. By only 3.8% difference, Britain has taken its place as an independent country of European Union.
European Union, EU, has been established in 1993. The initial purpose of EU was to establish a single market and single currency in Europe in order to promote economic and social development. Moreover, EU also aimed to protect European nation’s rights and interests. However, many problems have occurred and this made some European countries dissatisfy with this organization. Economic limitations, diplomatic limitations, overcoming refugee influx, financial lagging, and too many unnecessary regulations were reasons of dissatisfaction of British people to EU. Especially sudden influx of refugee has fired the issue of England exiting EU once again, and finally led to Brexit.
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This breath taking vote has made tremendous effects on not only economic industry, but also pharmaceutical industry. Britain would certainly go through a transition period, where intellectual property, quality standard, regulations for clinical trial and criteria for approval of product are vague. In fact, ABPI, which stands for Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry, has already announced its position as opposing to Brexit. It even reported the parliament that that Britain would lose its influence and status as a center of pharmaceutical industry. ABPI also publicized a list of signatures from all the British elites of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. It stated that maintaining its status as an EU member is more advantageous for British pharmaceutical industry. According to ABPI, EU enabled British patients to easily access to new medicine. On the other hand, Brexit would break the international cooperative relationship between scientists, doctors, and pharmaceutical industry. Then this can make new medicine less accessible for patients in England.
INTERNATIONAL ISSUE
Before Brexit, British pharmaceutical industry only had to get approval of clinical trial and merchandise of new medicine or medical tools from EMA, which stands for European Medicine Agency. Then Britain could sell any pharmaceutical products to all of EU countries. However, since Britain has exited from EU, British pharmaceutical industry now needs to get approval not only from EMA, but also from MHRA(Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency). Currently, EMA is located in London, England. Relocation of EMA would be inevitable and other European countries such as Denmark, Italy and Switzerland are striving to attract EMA to its own country. Due to Brexit, British MHRA acting as a proxy of approving clinical trial would disappear as EMA relocates its place. Hence, pharmaceutical companies which performs clinical trial in England would be shunned in pharmaceutical industry. Another disadvantage of Brexit is that Britain would lose EU, which is the biggest single market without boundaries. Thanks to EU, British pharmaceutical industry had received tremendous financial aid on research. This support had led Britain pharmaceutical industry to invent various new medicine such as anticancer drug, cure for dementia and anti-diabetes drug. Therefore, England had received many opportunities and developed well on R&D, investment and new employment. However, Brexit would block all these support and opportunities that England could get to develop its industry. In other words, Britain exiting EU means rearrangement of pharmaceutical industry from the beginning. To sum up, Brexit seems not so easy as most people assume. Not to mention that it will have a tremendous effect on economy. It also does influence pharmaceutical industry as a whole. Since pharmacy is one of the most developing industries in England, it seems it is not the right timing for England to exit European Union without any plan B. However, there is always a bright side on everything. Influence of Brexit on pharmaceutical industry is not so desperate. It would take at least two years for Britain to exit European Union. During this period, England can prepare itself for upcoming changes in pharmaceutical industry. Moreover, Brexit enabled Britain to overcome all the problems it had faced when it was part of European Union. Britain was going through serious unemployment due to a huge influx of immigrants from east Europe. These immigrants had received the same welfare benefits as the British nations. As the number of immigrants reduces, the quality of welfare would increase. B
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EXPERIENCE
Mi-saeng, In Takeda CHC team My First Internship Experience Chihyun Kim
I
chihyun4@naver.com
n school, people appreciate your capability, but at workplace, people only recognize the result. On the first day of my internship at a pharmaceutical company, the famous line from the Korean drama, Mi-Saeng, came to mind in the subway heading to the office. Last summer, I had an opportunity to work as an intern at the Consumer Health Care (CHC) department in Takeda. Working as an intern implied facing the world outside the classroom. With anxiety and expectation, I arrived at the Samsung station, where it is few minutes away from the office. In the office, the main experiences I had were: job training, visiting the pharmacy, and executing a project in a group. The stories are here.
On the job training 26 pharmacy students including myself worked in the Consumer Health Care (CHC) department, where we worked on marketing and sales of OTC, which refers to ‘over the counter’ drug sold in a pharmacy directly to patients without a prescription. Hence, the division’s main customers were pharmacists and patients. Our primary responsibility was to increase sales of Actinum, a B vitamin OTC drug. In the first job training session, we learned the functions and classifications of B vitamins, which, beforehand, I only knew as an essential nutrients in preventing diseases. The B vitamins are classified from B1 to B12 and each individual B vitamins are referred to by the specific name of each vitamin. In addition, each of them has specific deficiency effects and molecular functions. The first method to increase sales was to visit pharmacies directly and give pharmacists academic information regarding our drug. The other method we employed was to establish a marketing strategy for Actinum and prepare a presentation aimed at pharmacies. As Actinum mainly contains vitamin B1, B6 and B12, I had to further study deeper their functions to proficiently explain the drug to pharmacists. In addition, we had sessions in pharmaceutical marketing where we learned how to highlight the advantages of our drugs. The competing products of Actinum were not only the OTC B vitamin drugs produced by other firms but also the health functional foods, which made differentiated marketing methods very crucial. Out of the marketing trainings, I found education on communication skill very useful as I could learn the quality of articulating in meetings with pharmacist customers. We simulated various situations that could occur in visits to pharmacies. This practice enabled me to gain competency in delivering my intention in a concise, but amiable manner. In addition, I took several lectures about marketing and pharmaceutical industry. After the sessions, I thought that the job training was more crucial than I expected and that I should keep practicing to be competent at the actual hands-on experience next week.
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EXPERIENCE
2016 Consumer Healthcare
Visiting pharmacy After few weeks of training, we started the real game outside of the office. The assigned responsibilities were visiting pharmacists to give information on Actinum and promote the company’s merchandise by putting up posters. They were not working out very well as some of the pharmacists whom we visited were too busy to have a meeting with us. Although some of them even ignored me, I had to accept the fact that they have too much work on drugs and patients. Another challenging environment was the hottest weather since 1994. Moving from one pharmacy to another was a disaster, but I was motivated by the pharmacists who advised me on knowledge in medicine and the job as a pharmacist. One of them explained more details of the pharmacists society and the pharmacist job itself. During the visiting, although there were some difficulties, the responsibility of visiting pharmacies has provided me insight into various displaying system of medicines, profit system and management of pharmacies.
Group project Lastly, as a team, we worked on establishing marketing strategy of Actinum and presented our work. We believed that the information from wholesaler was very important as they actually distribute products. The sales experts from Geo-Young, whom we interviewed for our project, told that there is no standardized approach in sales as each of the customers is very different from another. This information has led my team to categorizing pharmacies into existence of nearby hospital, type of main patients and characteristics of the location. In addition, we set strategies of giveaway and POP. Through the project, not only did we find that the promotion of a product is much more demanding that we expected, the task of communication and co-operation between marketing and sales department were essential. With presenting the project, we ended the six weeks of internship, where I met people, challenged and learned. I sincerely wish students who consider career in pharmaceutical company to be helped with my experience in Takeda. B
2016 VOL.10
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GLOBAL NETWORK
An Exciting Tour to Canada’s Top Pharmacy School
by QS World University Rankings – Pharmacy and Pharmacology 2016
H
YoonJu Jang
sarahjang99@naver.com
ave you ever had a chance to learn about pharmacy schools outside Korea? If not, you might wonder
what the possible differences are compared
to those in here.
You may also be curious about a
diversity in subjects and curriculums, possible varieties of practices, or what a freshman’s school life would be like. In order to satisfy your curiosity, let me introduce the
largest pharmacy school in Canada; Faculty of Pharmacy
Programs
24
in University of Toronto, also called as Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.
About
Programs
This pharmacy school is known not only for its excellent academic reputation but also its research prowess. It was operated since 1927, the same year University of Toronto has been established. The university provides students optimal places for practices by locating near 4 internationally recognized hospitals: Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, the Hospital for Sick Children, Mount Sinai Hospital and Toronto General Hospital. Speaking of its reputation, its building is also famous for an award-winning structure in terms of both its educational facilities and its architectural design.
The Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto offers a wide assortment of programs to suit the needs of individuals interested in pursuing careers in pharmacy. Also, there are programs for those wishing to continue their lifelong learning, update their skills, and practice in the Canadian healthcare system. There are 3 interesting educational programs: Pharmaceutical Chemistry Specialist, PharmD, and PharmD for pharmacists. The first program is Pharmaceutical Chemistry Specialist. It is one of the Bachelor of Science programs. This subject combines knowledge of the biological, medical, and physical sciences in the study of the scientific aspect of drug therapy. The emphasis is on the chemical nature of the reactions and interactions involved in drug therapy.
THE BLUE VANGUARD
GLOBAL NETWORK
Doctor of Pharmacy, PharmD. Many of you might have heard of PharmD as Korea has implemented a 2+4year system and PEET (Pharmacy Education Eligibility Test) based on the PharmD program in U.S. and Canada. If a student has completed all prerequisite courses for two years of university study, he or she is given an opportunity to take a test called PCAT, Pharmacy College Admission Test. This program is very similar to the current system in Korea. Lastly, PharmD for pharmasists is literally a program designed for pharmacists or recent graduates to advance their practice and fully embrace the changing needs of today’s pharmacists. One can apply if he or she is either an experienced pharmacist in Canada or has completed the Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada (PECE) Evaluating Exam.
Freshmen’s life As you glanced through typical external aspects of U of T Pharmacy school so far, it is time to indirectly experience a freshman’s real life. Each year, the newly admitted students are about 240 people and they take 8 courses each semester for four years. Similar to any other pharmacy schools, all the courses for four years are fixed. Here is the list of subjects taken at Year 1. •Medication Therapy Management •Social Behavioral Health •Pharmaceutical Calculations •Molecular Pharmacology •Pharmaceutics •Pathobiology •Pharmaceutical Calculations •Pharmacotherapy:Foundations and General Medicine •Human Histology and Anatomy •Metabolic Biochemistry and Immunology •Pharmacokinetics •Fundamentals of Pharmacology •Health Systems •Pharmacy Informatics •Basic Human Physiology
Students undertake several foundational courses which are important in preparing them to become medication therapy experts. When Year 1 is finished, students are mandatory to undertake 160 hours of experimental education at designated pharmacies. Practices are held mostly at community pharmacy such as Shopper’s drug mart, or at hospital pharmacies near the college. They are asked to do what actual pharmacists would do, such things like dispensing drugs, inputting prescriptions into the machine, and treating patients. In terms of the prescriptions, there are diverse systems used to process them. Shopper’s Drug Mart uses program called Healthwatch, while other community pharmacy named Rexall uses Nexus. When Students finish their extensive learning on Pharmacy for a year, they will be able to study more deeply and detailedly at Year 2. As you can see, there are several marked contrasts of curriculums between Canadian and Korean pharmacy schools. University of Toronto has a unique program only for current pharmacists to develop their practical skills. Also, it is mandatory to have practices starting from Year 1 whereas Korean students begin from 5th grade. Finally, subjects are diverse throughout the year and among countries. Besides these differences, other dissimilarities between the two can exist. Regardless of nationality, however, becoming a pharmacist comes with great responsibilities. That is why educational curriculums at both Canadian and Korean pharmacy schools requires strenuous efforts. However, students must recall their work ethic and try their best to move on to the next level, while school should lead them to the right way. Perhaps it was their collaboration that made U of T an excellent learning place as Canada’s No.1 pharmacy school for a long time. B 2016 VOL.10
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COLUMN
The Big Data Influence On Health Care Sol Kwon
rnjsthf94@naver.com
T
he crude oil of 21st century, Eyes of God, and Big Brother. These words are used when people describe ‘Big Data’. From these words, people can deduce that Big Data is an important source of today’s informational technology and it has the power of collecting vast information.
So, what exactly is Big Data? Big Data usually includes data sets with sizes beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, manage, and process data within a tolerable elapsed time. Starting from Doug Laney, an analyst of META Group, a lot of people continue to use ‘3Vs’ model for describing big data: volume, velocity, and variety. Volume signifies that Big Data is not a result of sampling but it is from numerous observation and tracking of events. Velocity refers to the real-time availability of the Big Data. Variety indicates that Big Data draws information from text, images, audio, video and so on. Thanks to these characteristics of Big Data, it has been used and adopted to many fields such as education, media, science, and election. Especially, the importance of Big Data in health and medical care has been increasing a lot nowadays. There are three ways of using Big Data in this field.
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THE BLUE VANGUARD
The first way of using Big Data is creating a customized medical treatment. Since EMR (Electronic Medical Record) is spreading and individual health care tools are developed, it became easier to collect data related to individual’s health state. After being arranged and assorted, the data collected becomes meaningful statistics. For example, HIRA, the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, has produced statistics from the data collected in hospital, health care applications and so on, and have provided the data back to the users. Everyone who wants to know about exact symptoms and correct treatments of specific diseases they are concerned about, can approach to these statistics. Even for doctors and pharmacists, these statistics are good reference materials when they counsel patients individually.
COLUMN
Second, researchers can get the idea of developing new medicines and extending drug efficacy from Big Data. In the past, most pharmaceutical R&D (Research and Development) companies had limited data because they had few ways to collect data out of their companies’ influence and domain. However, after HIRA accumulated data from all over the country and offered it widely, companies could easily access the information now. Grabbing this opportunity, one pharmaceutical R&D company already succeeded to develop new complex drugs few months ago according to HIRA. The company analyzed Big Data of people taking some drugs at the same time. It found that some drugs did not cause any side effects but fulfilled their own functions when people took these gether. The company developed a new drug based on this data. It also found the effectiveness of existing drugs in other diseases by analyzing medical records. Like this story, by studying Big Data people can catch ideas of developing new drugs or find new effects of an original drug.
that nurses met when they worked. And then, it provided revised products and services which were optimized to their working environment. Due to this way, the company could secure their position in the pharmaceutical market. Since we can get useful information vastly, rapidly and variously from Big Data, the importance of it has been increased a lot in the field of health and medical care. Nowadays, it became easier to adopt customizing medical treatment, develop new medicines, and devise marketing strategy because of Big Data. However, the technologies of using Big Data are on a preparatory stage in Korea. Also there are some side effects such as invasion of privacy. So the government and HIRA are trying to extend the range of Big Data technology and solve the problems derived from it. If the preparation of using it is thoroughly conducted, Big Data could be the crude oil that nourishes our century. B
Third, Big Data can be used when pharmaceutical companies develop a marketing strategy. Nowadays, many pharmaceutical companies employ workforce to study Big Data and try to reflect it to their business strategy. They analyze the number of patients, regional sales of their medicines, and the size of their markets and compare these with their competitors. They also try to find the difference of drug efficiency according to the difference of gender and age of their patients. By analyzing all of these from Big Data, pharmaceutical companies can choose their market size, main targets, or differentiated marketing methods to raise their profits. For example, one company found that their major customers were nurses in sanitarium and it started finding all of the problems from Big Data
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COLUMN
The Drugs and The Nobel Prize Which Drug Contributed The Most To The Welfare Of Mankind? HaYan Jang
jhywhite1004@naver.com
E
very November, scholars around the world pay attention to the news on “who will be the winner of Nobel Prize this year?”. In accordance with the will of Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite, Nobel Prize is given to the world’s greatest scholars in five kinds of fields who have contributed the most to the happiness of mankind every year. Last year, the announcement of awardee of Nobel Prize of Physiology caused quite a stir in the pharmaceutical field. It was because the people who developed Avermectin and Artemisinin were all pharmacologists. Avermectin has an effect on killing animal parasites, especially Onchocerca volvulus which was running rampant in Africa. In 1970s, more than the half of adults who lived in a village of West Africa became blind because of this. However, thanks to Avermectin, most of the parasites are eradicated today. Similarly, Artemisinin has also saved many lives from Malaria. In light of this, it is true that these drugs have contributed to the people’s health and welfare. Then, what kind of medicines extricated human from fatal diseases and led to Nobel Prize?
Since 1901, among 105 Nobel Physiology Prizes that have been awarded, six were given to those who developed new medicine. The war against microscopic organism has been continuing since the beginning of human history. Due to the discovery of antibiotics, human became able to control microorganisms. The first synthetic antibiotic drug was invented by a German scientist, Gerhard Domagk. He discovered that Sulfonamide presents antibacterial function while he was studying azo dye. So he continued his study and finally converted this chemical into a medicine, called Prontosil. Development of Prontosil served as an important starting point for many antibacterial researches. Of course, Domagk received a Nobel Prize in 1939. It is generally known that Alexander Fleming discovered
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THE BLUE VANGUARD
the fact that any bacteria couldn’t proliferate near Penicillium by chance. Eventually, he found Penicillin, the first β-lactam antibiotics. This miracle drug saved many soldiers from the fear of death in World War 2. Fleming was honored a Nobel Prize in 1945. Italian scientist, Daniel Bovet, researched on how to block biogenic amines using drugs. He discovered the first antihistaminic agent, cymoxydiethylamine in 1937. At first, this compound was too toxic to use in clinical trial. However, through endless structural conformation of the compound, its derivative chemicals became antihistamic drugs which saved people from allergy these days. Along with his findings of antihistaminic agent, his great contribution to the advance of neuropharmacology helped him win the Nobel Prize in 1957.
COLUMN
In 1998, three pharmacologists who researched ‘A key step of medication’ became the owners of that year’s Nobel Prize. Based on the concept that the receptor and ligand are like a lock and key, they focused on finding out the ‘fake key’ when developing a variety of medicines. One of them called Dr. James Whyte Black noticed that histamine accelerates gastric acid secretion. So he made a fake key by transforming chemical structure of it. This histamine-2 receptor inhibitor is Cimetidine, the all-time best-selling drug. Also, he found the fake key that hinders coupling between β-receptor of cardiac muscle cell and epinephrine. The Propranolol, β-adrenalin receptor inhibitor, reduces the fatality of angina, high blood pressure and even myocardial infarction. In fact, about 50,000 patients were treated with Black’s drugs just in 1987. While Black focused on the fake keys for function of internal organs, Dr. Gertrude Belle Elion and George Herbert Hitchings studied about the fake keys that inhibit cell growth. They synthesized 6-Mercaptopurine and produced Azatiopurin. It suppresses adverse reaction caused by leukocytes when having an organ transplantation. Therefore, 20,000 of patients was able to transplant kidneys safely using Azatiopurin. In addition, Elion and Hitchings developed Pyrimethamine (antimalarial drug), Allopurinol (gout drug), Trimethoprim (antimicrobial agent) and Acyclovir. The first antiviral agent, Acyclovir works finely against herpes virus, and this is still generally used these days. These medicines were considered as ‘essential drugs’ by WHO based on its great accessibility all around the world. As mentioned above, researchers who developed the cure for parasites from natural substances received the Nobel Prize of 2015.
Professor Satoshi Omura and William C. Campbell discovered the repellents for animal parasite. Thanks to their discovery of Ivermectin, Onchocerca volvulus was eradicated in Colombia and also some other countries. Professor Tu Youyou picked up the idea from TCM(Traditional Chinese Medicine). Originally, Quinine was used against malaria from the 17th century, but it was a problem that drug-resistant Plasmodium appeared and it killed many people. She extracted Artemisinin from Sweet Wormwood, and this drug reduced the number of death from 95,000 in 2004 to 58,000 in 2013.
“For the greatest benefit to mankind”
Alfred Nobel Already, over one hundred years have passed since Alfred Nobel established Nobel Prize. There is an unfortunate episode about why he left such a will. Seeing Dynamite, his invention, being used as a murder weapon, he was extremely anxious. Then, when his brother Ludwig Nobel died, a French newspaper made a mistake writing about Alfred Nobel’s death instead of his brother’s, and called him the ‘merchant of death’. It gave him such a shock that he established the Nobel foundation, and that is why he started the Nobel Prize. As his aspiration, Nobel Prize winners have contributed to save people’s lives until today. Since the understanding of human physiology and he immune system has not been long enough, history of commercial medication development has not been long as well. Surely, humankind needs to fight against deadly disease such as HIV, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. However, it is expected that super drugs will be developed and human will win this war someday. B
2016 VOL.10
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EPILOGUE
t
h
e
Editor-In-Chief Youngjay Im
Vice Editor-In-Chief
Seungjin Lee
Designers
Jihoon Jung Jiseung Hong Sohee Jo
Address
b
l
u
e
Journalists
Soojung Kim Chihyun Kim Yulseung Sung Sol Kwon Soyeon Kim Chaeyeon Won Yoonju Jang Hayan Jang Seobin Park Dohyun Lee
College of Pharmacy, Yonsei University, 85 Songdogwahak-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon 21983, Korea
Online Site
https://issuu.com/bluevanguard
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THE BLUE VANGUARD
EDITOR’S NOTE
v
a
n
u
g
Editor’s note
a
r
d
임영재 사진
Hello everyone. Thank you for reading the 10th edition of The Blue Vanguard magazine. It is my pleasure to introduce the 10th edition of The Blue Vanguard. In this magazine, we deal with various topics including national and international issues which emerged as the recent focus of this year along with interesting columns about Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Nobel Prize. Furthermore, we had the chance to interview experts in pharmaceutical fields and intake their valuable advices. I hope that The Blue Vanguard can provide new insights for shaping our future and encourage deeper studies in all grounds. In this semester, new members of Blue Vanguard wrote about topics that they are interested in. We allowed it to improve the quality of our magazine. Last but not least, I would like to express gratitude to our advertisers Youngseok Oh of Taejeon, Wanjoo Kim of C-tri, Jonghyuk Sung of Stemore, in addition to our advising professors, Professor Gyoonhee Han and Jinhyun Jeong.
YoungJay Im 2016 VOL.10
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