Yuhan Corporation Successfully Completes ‘Yuilhan Academy 2026’ Youth Healthcare Social Innovator Program

Six Healthcare Solutions Presented from a Youth Perspective

On August 12, Yuhan Corporation announced that it held the results-sharing conference and graduation ceremony for the 2026 ‘Yuilhan Academy’ youth healthcare social innovator development program at the Yuhan Corporation Willow House Newsquare.

Group photo at the graduation ceremony of Yoilhan Academy. Yuhan Corporation

This program was designed to carry on the entrepreneurial spirit of founder Dr. Yuilhan. It provided a platform for young participants, who completed a five-week project-based learning (N-PBL) course that started on July 9, to share healthcare and welfare-related social problem-solving projects that they independently identified and designed.

During the first part of the results presentation, six teams presented their healthcare solutions. Topics included the development of a sleep health management app for people in their 20s and 30s by 2030; a project for verifying the authenticity of obesity drug advertisements; a guidebook for rare and intractable disease patients; a voice-enabled medication administration platform accessed via a single NFC tag; an AI-based podcast service for elderly people living alone in the Seoul metropolitan area; and a medication information linkage platform. The presentations covered a range of healthcare and welfare issues such as aging, mental health, and medical accessibility.

Before the graduation ceremony in the second session, Wonhong Roh, Chairman of the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association, gave a special lecture on the present and future of the pharmaceutical and bio industry. He emphasized the future direction of the pharmaceutical and bio sector, as well as the importance of young talent in addressing social challenges in healthcare and welfare.

During the subsequent graduation ceremony, Ukje Cho, CEO of Yuhan Corporation, presented graduation certificates to all 36 young graduates who completed the month-long program. An awards ceremony for outstanding ideas was also held. The grand prize (KRW 2 million) was awarded to Team 6, who developed the medication information linkage platform ‘Yaksone’. The team was highly praised for effectively designing a system where medical professionals and caregivers can share and mutually connect information to address the multi-drug administration issues among the elderly. The first prize (KRW 1 million) went to Team 2 for developing an advertising verification app, and the excellence prize (KRW 500,000) was given to the team that created ‘YakTok’, an NFC tag-based voice guidance service.

The event was attended by Himok Won, Chairman of the Yuhan Foundation; Yungon Kim, CEO of The Better Future; Geonsu Yoon, CEO of DSC Investment; Kyungseon Kang, Professor of Veterinary Medicine at Seoul National University; Hyunsang Shin, Professor of Business Administration at Hanyang University; as well as representatives from business, academia, and impact investment organizations.

Over the five-week program, participants engaged in expert lectures, conducted qualitative interviews with stakeholders, participated in site visits and validations, and attended design-thinking workshops to define social problems and devise solutions. The team that planned a rare and intractable disease solution even interviewed a researcher at Yuhan Corporation working on a treatment for Gaucher’s disease. Throughout the program, group mentoring sessions were also provided with staff from various departments such as Yuhan Corporation’s R&D, clinical, marketing, and ESG management offices.

A Yuhan Corporation official said, "Yuilhan Academy is a participatory talent development program where young people experience and analyze social issues firsthand and propose actionable solutions. Its significance lies in presenting a new educational model that combines expertise from the pharmaceutical and bio industry with social innovation capacity." The official added, "We will continue to expand and develop Yuilhan Academy to foster future talents who will lead innovations in healthcare and welfare while actively supporting youth-driven social value creation activities."

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