SK biopharmaceuticals has appointed Suh Ji-hee as chair of its board, marking the first time a woman has held the role since the company’s founding.
Suh Ji-hee, newly appointed chair of SK biopharmaceuticals’ board of directors and the first woman to hold the role since the company’s founding. (Courtesy of SK biopharmaceuticals)
Suh Ji-hee, newly appointed chair of SK biopharmaceuticals’ board of directors and the first woman to hold the role since the company’s founding. (Courtesy of SK biopharmaceuticals)
The appointment was made Wednesday following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting and subsequent board session. Suh, a former partner at Samjong KPMG, joined SK biopharmaceuticals as an outside director in March 2024 and has since served on key committees including the audit committee.
According to the company, Suh was selected for her three decades of experience in accounting, auditing and risk management. She became the first female vice president of KPMG Korea in 2021 and the first female executive at Samjong KPMG in 2023.
SK biopharmaceuticals also added two new outside directors: Kim Yong-jin, president of the Biomedical Research Institute at Seoul National University Hospital, and Cho Kyoung-sun, former CEO of Shinhan DS.
Cho Kyoung-sun (left), former CEO of Shinhan DS, and Kim Yong-jin, president of the Biomedical Research Institute at Seoul National University Hospital, have joined SK biopharmaceuticals as outside directors. (Courtesy of SK biopharmaceuticals)
Cho Kyoung-sun (left), former CEO of Shinhan DS, and Kim Yong-jin, president of the Biomedical Research Institute at Seoul National University Hospital, have joined SK biopharmaceuticals as outside directors. (Courtesy of SK biopharmaceuticals)
Kim is a professor of cardiology and has led AI-based medical data projects and drug development efforts at the hospital. He is expected to advise on R&D strategy, technology adoption and global pipeline expansion, SK biopharmaceuticals said.
Cho served as the first female CEO within the Shinhan Financial Group. With over 40 years of experience in finance and IT, she is expected to provide advisory support in financial strategy, accounting and risk management.
“By strengthening the leadership of our board, we aim to establish an independent and specialized advisory system across key areas of business,” CEO Lee Dong-hoon said in a statement. “We will continue to enhance our strategic capabilities to become a leading global biopharma company.”
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Until recently, managing diabetes at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital required something closer to detective work than medicine. Doctors had to log into separate continuous glucose monitor (CGM) platforms for each patient, often using printed login sheets carried by hand—then mentally stitch together scattered glucose readings into a clinical narrative.
The process, said Cho Jae-hyoung, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism who has diagnosed around 3,000 patients with diabetes at the hospital and now also serves as CEO of digital health firm iKooB, was not just tedious—it was risky. Physicians, he said, were expected to “mentally piece everything together,” a workaround that was both inefficient and prone to error.
Abbott’s latest move aims to take that burden off the physician.
IKooB CEO Cho Jae-hyoung speaks Tuesday at an Abbott Korea press conference at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, emphasizing that CGM devices only reach their full potential when integrated into clinical systems. (Credit: Abbott Korea)
IKooB CEO Cho Jae-hyoung speaks Tuesday at an Abbott Korea press conference at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, emphasizing that CGM devices only reach their full potential when integrated into clinical systems. (Credit: Abbott Korea)
On Tuesday, at a press conference in Seoul, Abbott Korea's diabetes division announced a direct integration between its FreeStyle Libre 2 CGM and LabConnect, a hospital-facing data platform built by iKooB, a digital health firm under GC Biopharma.
The new link allows patient glucose data to flow directly from Abbott’s sensors into hospital systems—no separate logins, no tab juggling, and no workaround required.
The FreeStyle Libre 2 sensor, roughly the size of a 500-won coin, continuously tracks glucose levels for up to 14 days. Now, patients using the device can sync that data to the cloud via Doctorvice, iKooB’s mobile app, which complies with international data security standards. Once approved, glucose trends are pushed directly into iKooB's LabConnect, where physicians can view and act on the information alongside other clinical records.
“There is no single app or device that can manage a chronic condition like diabetes,” Cho said at Tuesday’s press conference, explaining that the real value of CGM emerges "only when it’s part of a broader, integrated ecosystem." For years, CGM data in Korea was stuck in digital limbo, he said—generated outside hospitals and rarely integrated into EMRs or physician workflows. That siloed data, he added, made it difficult to fully grasp the patient’s trajectory or respond with precision.
Abbott’s device, approved in the U.S. as an integrated CGM (iCGM), is reimbursed in Korea for patients with type 1 diabetes and, since last November, for pregnant women requiring insulin therapy. But Cho said the broader clinical adoption has been slowed by one persistent issue: doctors couldn’t see the data in real-time, and when they could, it wasn’t in one place.
Before the iKooB integration, doctors often worked blind. “Even if you build a great house in the middle of nowhere, it’s meaningless unless it’s connected to the rest of the world,” Cho said, likening standalone CGMs to isolated tools without context. “Medical data is the same.”
Now, with LabConnect, hospitals can ingest and visualize both in-clinic and patient-generated data from CGMs and IoT devices. The platform syncs this information to the cloud, aggregates it, and folds it into standard clinical workflows, helping physicians make faster, more personalized decisions.
And those decisions vary from patient to patient. “Some see a spike after just five grapes,” Cho said, offering a snapshot of the granular detail CGMs can provide. “Others only on certain days of the week. One patient’s glucose shot up every time they had breakfast in our hospital cafeteria.”
It’s this level of behavioral insight that Cho, who’s worked with thousands of diabetes patients, says often reveals the disease’s human dimension. “When you look at the data,” he said, “you begin to see the patient’s life.”
FreeStyle Libre 2 also tracks “time in range,” a key clinical metric that shows how often a patient’s glucose levels fall within their target zone. That information, now visible to physicians alongside lab values and risk indicators like cardiovascular health or early signs of retinopathy, helps tailor treatment plans to each patient’s unique physiology and lifestyle.
Cho pointed out that no two patients with diabetes present the same. Some face persistent hypoglycemia. Others deal with sarcopenia, heart disease, or complications that shift their care needs entirely. Without integration, these nuances were often missed or addressed too late. “Diabetes isn’t one disease,” he said. “It’s many.”
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Kim Ji-hye jkim404@docdocdoc.co.kr
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