ESSorant Consulting
Bridging Drug Development between Korea and the World
Elizabeth S. Song (한 상미), Ph.D.
Founder and Managing Director, ESSorant Consulting
Personal and cultural strengths
Elizabeth is a native of Korea and a graduate of Seoul National University's School of Pharmacy, or the "Go-To-School" for decision makers for pharmaceutical industry in Korea. She has extensive networks within the Korean pharmaceutical industry, academia and regulatory agencies, and is comfortable with Korean business culture.
As a naturalized American living in the US and Europe for 30 years, Elizabeth has extensive experience in business and corporate development within both established and emerging biotechnology companies. Additionally, she has 10 years of experience in operational and logistical management for a clinical research organization.
With this distinctive blend of career experiences coupled with outstanding English/Korean communication and business skills, Elizabeth has the unique ability to foster partnerships between Korean and international biotech or pharmaceutical companies.
Research and Preclinical Development Experiences
Trained as a pharmacist in Korea and as a research scientist in the US, Elizabeth has a broad background in biotechnology and pharmaceutical R & D. Upon obtaining a B.S. in Pharmaceutics from Seoul National University, School of Pharmacy, she received her M.A. in Immunology from University of California, Santa Barbara and a Ph.D. in Genetics from University of California, Berkeley. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Per A. Peterson at The Scripps Research Institute and was a recipient of the prestigious Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Fellowship. Subsequently, she held positions at Chiron Corporation as Senior Scientist and the Project Team Leader, and at Virologix Corporation as the Director of Viral Research.
Clinical Development Experiences
Elizabeth has been the Vice President of Business at EGeen International Corporation, a transatlantic Clinical Research Organization for over 10 years. In addition to the business development activities and alliance management, she has been extensively involved in overall clinical operations as the "Project Manager of Project Managers" and the ultimate operational liaison with various pharmaceutical and emerging Sponsors.
Business and Corporate Development Experiences
Followed by her consulting roles to several Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology companies, Elizabeth served at Lynx Therapeutics, Inc. as the Director of Business Development and Alliances Management for 4 years, responsible for initiating, negotiating and managing Lynx's technology development alliances with academic and corporate partners. She was also responsible for managing technology evaluation, scientific licensing and customer support.
She continued on business and corporate development at EGeen as the Vice President of Business Development, where she was responsible for overall business development and alliance management. Additionally, Elizabeth has been serving as a business development consultant for biotechnology companies, assisting general business and strategic direction development, along with facilitating introductions for collaboration, licensing and/or investment opportunities.
Subsequently, Elizabeth has been the Executive Vice President of Strategic Development at CHA Biotech, Co, Ltd., with broad and varied responsibilities for identifying overall strategic initiatives for the CHA Group at large and its affiliates, domestic and abroad. She was also served as the Chief Operating Officer at Gemvax & KAEL, Co., Ltd. provided a leadership role in the creation of strategic partnerships and collaborations to strengthen company’s strategic and product development goals and interests.
Through her wide-ranging experiences at CRO, biotech companies, and pharmaceutical companies, Elizabeth is in a rare position to convey diverse viewpoints and balanced opinions on issues and challenges in Alliance Management as a perspective from vendor, sponsor and licensee, respectively.
Start-ups, Consulting and Mentoring Experiences
Concurrent to EGeen appointment, Elizabeth has been involved with founding of several biotechnology firms, in addition to serving as an Advisor to a number of biotechnology companies and Astia, innovative not-for-profit organization to foster women entrepreneurship (www.Astia.org).