Founded in 2025, NTTA was established with the aim that clinicians themselves serve as the driving force of clinical trials—working together to plan, design, and conduct clinical research for the treatment of neurological diseases. Our Society began with a sincere hope: that the knowledge and outcomes generated through these efforts will return to clinical practice and ultimately contribute to better care for patients. This hope remains the foundation of NTTAand its most important value.

We believe that clinical trials find their true meaning not in research alone, but when they lead to real benefits for patients.Guided by this belief, NTTA strives to create an environment in which researchers and industry partners can collaborate closely, while steadily improving the quality of clinical trials through transparent data sharing and cooperation across diverse fields.

These goals cannot be achieved by the efforts of a single individual. However, when clinicians, healthcare professionals, andresearchers in the pharmaceutical industry—who share the same sense of purpose and direction—come together to share their valuable experiences, meaningful clinical research can be realized in everyday medical practice.

The successfully completed SWITCH trial, as well as the ongoing APS-STROKE, SVO70, and TegoStroketrials, were developed with clinicians actively involved from the design stage. These studies demonstrate how the values of NTTA are being translated into tangible clinical research outcomes.

NTTA will continue to foster a culture in which each member’s expertise and experience are respected, while consistently pursuing well-designed, high-quality clinical trials. Through these efforts, we seek to become a trusted society in the field of neurological clinical trials.

Together with you,
I look forward to building a society that advances neurological clinical trials that truly benefit patients, and to walking thispath guided by the sincere purpose of NTTA.

Thank you.

The roots of our association trace back to 2011, when a few young neurologists and I formed a small gathering called the Cerebrovascular Study Group. At that time, many academically distinguished colleagues felt that the existing academic platform—limited to only two national conferences per year—offered far too few opportunities for scientific presentation and exchange.

Under the banner of this study group, we met every month, sharing our research, encouraging one another, and strengthening both our academic insight and our friendship. This modest beginning eventually led to the establishment of the Korean Cerebrovascular Research Institute (KCRI) in 2017—the first government-approved nonprofit organization within the Korean neurology community.

From its inception, KCRI pursued initiatives uncommon among traditional societies, including conducting clinical trials and publishing scholarly books on neurological diseases. Over the years, as the Institute grew in capacity and experience, it became evident that the major undertaking of neurological clinical trials required a more independent and specialized academic structure.

Thus, in 2020, we launched the Society for Cerebral Metabolism and Angiology (SCMA), an academic society dedicated exclusively to clinical trials. Over the next three years, SCMA organized more than twenty symposia focused solely on neurological diseases and novel therapeutics.

As our organization matured further, we began designing and conducting large-scale clinical trials of our own.
These include:

• the SWITCH trial, demonstrating the superiority of rosuvastatin/ezetimibe combination therapy in ischemic stroke,
• the APS-STROKE trial, determining optimal antithrombotic therapy for antiphospholipid antibody syndrome,
• the SVO70 trial, establishing LDL-cholesterol targets for patients with small-vessel occlusion, and
• the TegoStroke trial, evaluating the benefit of prophylactic tegoprazan in acute ischemic stroke.

As a society uniquely structured around clinical research, we sought a name and identity that more accurately reflected our mission and future direction. Thus, in 2025, building upon the legacy of SCMA and more than a decade of preparation, we established a new academic society devoted to neurological clinical trials: the NeuroTherapeutics & Trials Association (NTTA).

We are not a newly formed organization, nor a spontaneously assembled group. From the early days of the Cerebrovascular Study Group to the present, our journey has spanned fourteen years of continuous preparation, collaboration, and real-world execution. We now stand as a mature, fully realized entity—ready to lead the next era of neurological clinical research.

NTTA is the first academic society in Korea explicitly dedicated to clinical trials. As we strive to become the true hub of neurological clinical research, our membership will not be limited to physicians. We welcome all healthcare professionals, as well as researchers across the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, to join us.

We invite you to walk with us as NTTA reshapes the academic culture in Korea and establishes a new standard for excellence in neurological clinical trials.

Thank you.