November 13, 2017

Meet William Lee of AST Products in Billerica

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to William Lee.

William, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
It was the 66th letter that I sent out in 1997 to apply for a post-doctoral position in US universities that got me to work at Massachusetts General Hospital at Boston. Although I was born in Malaysia, I finished all my three degrees (Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D.) in Chemical Engineering at the University of Tokyo in Japan. By the time I obtained my Ph.D. degree, I was so accustomed to the society that I told myself I needed a refreshing time. Although I was offered a better post-doctoral researcher position with a much better compensation in Japan, I decided to pass the opportunity and came to Boston.

To study overseas for my tertiary education was a dream of mine when I started elementary school. By the time I almost finished my high school, I was applying to Australia’s and US’ universities. That’s what students in Malaysia do because we were educated in English, Chinese and Malay medium. Although I got admitted to an Australia and a US university, coming from a low income family, my family could only support half of the yearly expenses. As such, I had to give up. Since I was desperate to leave, all in a sudden, my dad said, ‘Why not give Japan a try?’ The truth is I had never seen myself to study in Japan, not to mention knowing the language. The main reason was foreign students could work part-time while studying.

Since I had no other choices, I decided to go with my limited Japanese proficiency, such as Sony, Hitachi, Toyota, etc. Before I went to Japan, I thought that the best university there was Nihon (a.k.a. Japan) University, but I arrived, I was told that was not the best, it’s only the biggest university. Due to the fact that Japanese language is the only medium used for undergraduate study in Japan, all foreign students needed to study 1 or 1.5 years of Japanese language before sitting for the university entrance examination. Long story short, I found out that the University of Tokyo was the best university and got in 1.5 years later in 1988. The good ending story was through the 9 years spent for obtaining my 3 degrees, I only spent about $2,500 for tuition fee because of various scholarships, and I worked part-time to cover my living expenses. Getting the Ph.D. degree had made my family proud because I am the only Ph.D. in all relatives and more importantly, my parents were not been look down anymore because they only had high school diplomas.

Although my parents insisted me to stay and work in Japan after my Ph.D., I decided to start over in US at Massachusetts General Hospital. 2 years of research work got me thinking of what I wanted to do later. Trained as an engineer, I always wanted to create something so that I can give back to the society with all the knowledge I have accumulated. As such, it was either going to a consulting company or a venture capital (VC) firm to learn about commercialization or starting a company. Luckily, there was a Japanese VC that was looking for someone to assist on due diligence for its overseas life science investments. So, I got in and went back to Tokyo. That’s in 1999.

After a year, I came back to Boston to start my first venture, eMembrane, to commercialize life science tools via the technology I had learned at the University of Tokyo. Later, eMembrane was merged into my current company, AST Products, which manufactures medical devices and provides medical device coatings. The Company is focusing on ophthalmic devices, particularly intraocular lens (IOL) for cataract surgery and its related delivery systems. IOL is injected into the eye of a cataract patient after his/her original lens is removed. In order to do so, the injector needs a lubricious coating on its inner wall so that the IOL can travel smoothly without any damages after entering the eye. Therefore, the technology of eMembrane came in play to provide the lubricious treatment of the inner wall of the injector. Currently, we are treating more 2 million injectors this year and the number will double next year. I was happy that the technology I had learned could make such a difference in this world and contribute to the society by making the cataract surgery safe.

Now, in addition to providing lubricious treatment for customers’ IOL injectors, AST Products has journeyed into making its own IOL and injectors since 2011. Although there are many big players in this field, we believe and we have confidence that we are able to obtain a solid position in this market with our unique and proprietary technologies.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I guess nobody’s life is always a smooth road, me included. In my high school years, my family was looked down by all relatives due to the fact that they only had high school diplomas. I had made up my mind to make them proud one day at that time. Due to insufficient resources, I had to give up study abroad in Australia and US, and went to Japan. Certainly, I had to work part-time in order to support myself in Japan. Working night shift and schooling at daytime was the toughest year for me during the Japanese language study before entering university. Then, the Japanese language issue, Japanese students spend 12 years to master the language, we, foreign students, spend 12 months to do so. As such, the freshman year was difficult too.

Then, the next bumpy life was the time when I started my first company. Too many unexpected twists and turns, too many worries. Worried about whether I could get food on the table tomorrow, etc. It’s stressful, but I considered it as positive stress. To me, as far as I have my mission clear, I believe I will accomplish someday. I always set my life as a series of 10-year cycles. I believe in order to accomplish something, 10 years are needed. When I reach the 10th year, either I have succeeded or failed, I need to move on to the next 10 years. It took me 5 years to identify the need of the technology to treat the inner wall of an IOL injector and another 3 years to perfect and commercialize the technology. Now, we have a steady growth business. Certainly, I could not do this on my own, luckily I have family, friends, colleagues, mentors to support me, and I am very thankful to them.

How I overcome all these struggles? I guess ‘persistence’ is the only keyword I can think of by looking back on what I have done so far. I guess I am stubborn person too.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about AST Products – what should we know?
AST Products, Inc. develops and manufactures ophthalmic surgical products used for cataract surgery. Current product pipeline includes the Asqelio™ soft hydrophobic intraocular lenses and the premier IOL injectors, the pioli™ and lioli™ IOL Delivery Systems, designed for safe and precise implantation of a single-piece foldable intraocular lens into the human eye through a surgical procedure. In addition, AST Products provide various coatings for interventional medical devices including hydrophilic/lubricious, antimicrobial, anti-encrustation coatings. AST also provides surface analysis equipment’s and specially engineered plasma reactors that facilitate the application of its advanced surface treatment technologies.

I am the VP of R&D and Regulatory Affairs, mainly developing new technologies and leading a team for getting medical device approvals from FDA as well as getting CE-marking from the European Commission.

I have experiences in developing functionalized membranes for peritoneal dialysis, polymeric electrolyte fuel cells, microbial cell removal and immobilization, protein separation and collection of uranium from seawater. However, now my main focus is in the field of ophthalmology. I was awarded the Frost & Sullivan North America Technology Innovation of the Year Award in 2008.

AST Products is a unique company with its proprietary surface treatment technologies for medical devices. Our 1st generation of the lubricious coating has been exclusively licensed out to the biggest IOL company and there are more than 6 million cataract surgeries been performed safely and precisely with the application of this technology onto the IOL delivery injector. The 2nd generation of the lubricious coating has just picked up its phase to reach more than 2 million cataract surgeries this year and its growing fast. As such, we are proud of our contribution in this industry and we aim to be the ‘only-one’ company with such surface treatment technologies.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Firstly and certainly my parents, who have taught me well and always support my various unexpected decisions in my life. And my two younger sisters, who also support me all the time. Although I lost my youngest sister at the Indonesian tsunami in 2004, she is always in my minds and I miss her smiles and mischievousness. And my wife and daughter who also support what I am doing even though my rank at home is at the bottom according to them.

Secondly, my university advisor, Prof. Kyoichi Saito of Chiba University (previously at the University of Tokyo), Japan has been both my teacher and mentor. He was the one who always encourage me to explore all different opportunities and think outside the box.

And, Dr. Ih-Houng Loh, the founder of AST Products, who called me up after reading an article in the newspaper when I started eMembrane, my 1st company. His business sense has helped educating me to look beyond technology and he has taught me a lot about commercialization.

Lastly, of course, all my friends who I have met through my journey. I always treat the encounter of two people in this world as 2 in 7 billion probabilities and I value this very much. And I believe such encounter is not a ‘coincidence’ but a ‘necessity’.

I hope that what I have received from all of the above can one day pass on to the next generation. Maybe that’s my next 10-year project.

Contact Info: