Choo Yeon-sung "AI at the stage to deliver results... Targeting IPO in 2025"

Appointed CEO of AI Developer Standigm Last April
Leading Development of 'PactiveJeong' Specialized in New Drug Development

Preparing In-House Clinical Trial for 'DR-004'
"We Must Prove the Potential of AI"

"Now is the stage where we need to deliver results. I thought there might be a role I could play, so I took on the position of CEO."

Chuyeonseong Standaim CEO
Photo by Lee Chunhee

Choo Yeon-sung, who was appointed CEO of Standigm, an artificial intelligence (AI) new drug development company, last April, is a new drug development expert who has led various new drug developments at LG Chem since joining the company in 1996, including serving as the clinical development team leader for Korea's fifth domestic new drug, 'Pactiv Tab.' Choo has now taken a full step into the somewhat unfamiliar AI new drug development industry.

We met CEO Choo on the 7th (local time) in Boston, USA, where the BIO International Convention (BIO USA) was held. He said, "I have been working as an advisor to Standigm since 2018," emphasizing that although this is his first time fully joining an AI new drug development company, it is by no means an unfamiliar field. With Choo’s appointment, the three co-CEOs from Samsung Electronics’ Advanced Institute of Technology (Kim Jin-han, Yoon So-jung, and Song Sang-ok), who have been leading the company since its founding in 2015, will focus on research and development (R&D). Choo added, "The previous CEOs will return to their original roles they started with. Now that we are at a stage where results must be delivered, I thought there was a role I could play, so I took on the CEO position."

CEO Choo emphasized that AI new drug development is still in its early stages and explained that clinical trials to directly prove this are being expedited. He said, "We need to show that AI really works well," and explained, "We are planning to conduct clinical trials for the pipeline 'DR-004' through drug repositioning." He also stressed, "There are companies abroad that are somewhat ahead of us, but there is no confirmed case of successful clinical trials on patients to prove it. We need to demonstrate the potential that AI can do this." DR-004 targets rare diseases that occur in people with weakened mitochondrial function.

During the two months following his appointment, Choo spent busy days holding internal employee meetings to assess the current status and continuing meetings with investors. Standigm recently consolidated its three existing platforms into two. Previously, the platforms were divided into 'ASK' for new target discovery, 'BEST' for new substances, and 'Insight' for new indications of existing drugs, but ASK and Insight have now been integrated. Choo explained, "We integrated Insight’s drug repositioning function into ASK," adding, "Going forward, ASK will be a platform that discovers new targets as well as new indications."

A researcher at Standaim Synthesis Laboratory is demonstrating the experiment monitoring system.

During this BIO USA period, various meetings were held with companies based on these platforms. CEO Choo said, "Since ASK is a new target discovery platform, global pharmaceutical companies are very interested," and explained, "We are currently in the early stages of discussions regarding cancer and autoimmune diseases." Regarding BEST, he said, "When a client company sets a target, we design and optimize new substances to discover them," but expressed some regret, noting, "Due to the recent worsening investment environment, most interest has shifted from early-stage to later-stage projects, so interest seems to have decreased compared to before."

As Standigm enters its ninth year since establishment, Choo also expressed his ambition to achieve substantial results going forward. He said, "It is not so much about stabilization now as it is about quickly delivering results," and added, "We plan to go public (IPO) around the first half of 2025." He also mentioned that various procedures such as technology evaluations and preliminary listing reviews must be completed, so "We will actively attempt the IPO in the first quarter or first half of next year."

Regarding plans to increase sales for the IPO, he said he would explore various options. CEO Choo stated, "First, sales will come in through upfront payments from technology exports," and added, "Joint research through the BEST platform is also possible, and we will try various models such as providing services that create databases for other companies using the natural language processing (NLP) technology embedded in ASK."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.