Samsung Biologics underscores commitment to sustainability

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Samsung Biologics’ top official on Wednesday stressed the importance of contract development and manufacturing organization companies’ efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and how the South Korean CDMO giant is working toward achieving environmental friendliness. “CDMOs play a huge part because we provide the manufacturing and logistics for a lot of (biopharmaceutical) companies and we have to continue to innovate together,” said James Choi, ex

Nov. 3, 2022

Chinese EV battery makers gobbling up market share from Korean rivals

Chinese electric vehicle battery makers are quickly gobbling up market share from their South Korean rivals, largely buoyed by a surging demand at home, data showed Thursday. According to Seoul-based market tracker SNE Research, China’s CATL retained its top spot in global sales in the January-September period as it supplied 119.9 gigawatt-hours of batteries, more than doubling from a year ago. Its market share increased from 30.7 percent to 35.1 percent, widening the gap with Korea’

Nov. 3, 2022

Samsung appoints trade, energy specialists as new outside directors

Samsung Electronics on Thursday held an extraordinary shareholders meeting – the first in six years – to appoint two outside directors – Yoo Myung-hee, a former trade minister, and Heo Eun-nyeong, an economics professor. Yoo served as the nation’s top negotiator for free trade talks during the Moon Jae-in administration. She was also one of the final candidates to run for the director-general of the World Trade Organization in 2020. Yoo, a trade specialist, is expected to

Nov. 3, 2022

Proxy battle looms at Samsung as Lee Jae-yong tightens grip

Lee Jae-yong’s formal ascension to the top seat at Samsung Electronics, the crown jewel of the nation’s largest conglomerate, is fueling speculation about potential changes in the founding family’s governance structure across Samsung companies. His promotion to chairman has long been considered a crucial step for Lee to wield more power at Samsung. With the new title, Lee’s vision for a “New Samsung” will take a clearer shape, while stalled talks on mega deals

Nov. 2, 2022

[Exclusive] SK Pharmteco’s French CDMO to complete construction of new plant in Q1 2023

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Yposkesi, SK Pharmteco’s French contract development and manufacturing organization specialized in cell and gene therapy, is expecting to complete the construction of its new plant by the end of the first quarter next year, the CDMO’s CEO said Tuesday. “After (the completion of the plant), we will qualify this manufacturing unit and we expect to get the authorization from the French authorities to operate the plant under the (Good Manufacturing Practice) b

Nov. 2, 2022

[Herald Interview] ‘Biopharmas in midst of manufacturing revolution’

As biopharmaceutical companies across the globe are undergoing revolutionary changes in bioprocessing, Merck Life Science appears committed to helping Korean companies stay ahead of the game. Meeta Gulyani, head of strategy, business development and sustainability at Merck Life Science, told The Korea Herald last week that the factory of the future features connected, automated and digitized manufacturing. “All of this is to say that we are going to try to increase the speed of manufacturi

Nov. 2, 2022

Celltrion seeks partnership expansion at CPhI Worldwide

FRANKFURT -- Celltrion, a South Korean pharmaceutical giant, is seeking to expand partnerships at this year’s Convention on Pharmaceutical Ingredients Worldwide, the company said Tuesday. Taking place in major European cities each year, CPhI is one of the largest global pharma industry events in the world that gathers household names and experts. The German city of Frankfurt is holding this year’s event from Tuesday to Thursday. According to Celltrion, the drug maker has set up an in

Nov. 1, 2022

Samsung Biologics emphasizes speed

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Samsung Biologics, a leading South Korean contract development and manufacturing organization, has highlighted its speed in expanding production capacity and bringing clients’ drug products to the market as the company’s competitive edge in the global CDMO industry. “The most prominent differentiator is our speed to the market. We allow our customers to bring their products faster to the market,” said Kevin Sharp, Samsung Biologics’ vice presid

Nov. 1, 2022

Samsung Electronics marks 53rd anniversary in low-key

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday marked the 53rd anniversary of its foundation in a toned-down event, out of respect for the victims of the recent deadly Itaewon crowd crush. The annual event, held at a convention center in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, is typically one of the Korean tech giant’s biggest celebrations. This year in particular, speculation was running high that recently promoted Chairman Lee Jae-yong would unveil concrete plans for his “New Samsung” vision. But the moo

Nov. 1, 2022

Instagram back after 8-hour global-wide service malfunction

Meta-owned social networking service Instagram said Tuesday its software bug, which resulted in a global-scale malfunction and affected random users, was fixed after eight hours. According to a US-based service outage-tracking website Downdetector, reports regarding the malfunction of Instagram soared starting around 10 p.m. Monday in Korea. Reports of the Instagram service malfunction soared from 305 at 9:48 p.m. to 7,300 at 11 p.m. Reported in-app type failures varied, such as suspension of ac

Nov. 1, 2022

Samsung's W130tr market cap evaporates in 10 months

  Sixteen affiliates of South Korea's No. 1 business conglomerate Samsung have seen a drop in stock market cap by 129.36 trillion won ($90.78 billion) combined during the period of January to October, data showed Tuesday. This means nearly 20 percent of the market cap of the affiliates has evaporated compared to the end of 2021, according to the stock market data compiled by business intelligence Leaders Index. As a result, Samsung's 16 affiliates saw a total market cap of 541.8 trillion wo

Nov. 1, 2022

[Herald Interview] Strong intellectual property protection critical for drug innovation

Strong intellectual property protection is a key factor for pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms to become global household names, according to a high-ranking official at the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations. “Because our industry is one of the most highly regulated industries, so what’s necessary in order to excel in that situation is, of course, the ability to innovate first and foremost. But that is only allowed through very strong intel

Oct. 31, 2022

Science Ministry mulls developing system to warn crowd crush

South Korea's science ministry is considering to develop a system that could warn authorities of potential crowd crush accidents by using digital data and technology to predict risk elements and the route of crowd movements. The new system was proposed at an emergency safety inspection meeting held by the Ministry of Science and ICT on Monday following the death of 154 people in a crowd crush that occurred Saturday evening during Halloween celebrations in Itaewon, central Seoul. “We h

Oct. 31, 2022

Naver to inject W5.2b for joint research on AI-based content with Univ. of Toronto

Naver said Monday it will inject 5.2 billion won ($3.6 million) over the next five years, along with Canadian social storytelling platform Wattpad which has become part of the company last year, to conduct joint research on AI-based content service platforms with the University of Toronto. South Korean internet giant said this study would allow application of advanced, exclusive technologies to Wattpad’s content platform leading to more innovative user experience. Naver bought Wattpad at

Oct. 31, 2022

SK hynix says Arm stake acquisition 'not underway'

South Korean memory chip maker SK hynix said it is not pursuing a plan to acquire a minority stake in the United Kingdom-based semiconductor intellectual property firm Arm, a filing showed Monday. "(SK hynix) has put various strategic options on the table to strengthen our competitive edge and enhance shareholder value, but we hereby notify that there is no ongoing process for consortium-based acquisition of Arm as of now," read the firm's recent filing with the Financial Supervis

Oct. 31, 2022

Samsung Biologics looks to woo global clients at CPhI Worldwide

FRANKFURT -- Samsung Biologics, the world’s largest contract manufacturing and development organization by production capacity, is looking to attract global customers at this year’s Convention on Pharmaceutical Ingredients Worldwide, officials said Monday. CPhI is one of the biggest international pharma industry events that draws leading businesses and professionals from across the globe. Taking place in major European cities each year, this year’s event is held in Frankfurt, G

Oct. 31, 2022

Korean electronic firms lag behind in renewable transition

South Korean electronics giants are facing calls to accelerate renewable transition and set up climate goals across the supply chain, despite earlier pledges to go carbon neutral across their operations. In a report Friday by environmental group Greenpeace and grassroots organization Stand.earth, Korean electronics goods sellers Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics were ranked "F" in terms of progress toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions, on the scale of "A" to "F.

Oct. 28, 2022

Samsung's operating profit falls 30% amid grim outlook

Samsung Electronics' operating profits dropped by more than 30 percent on year, despite record sales, amid the weakening business environment in the semiconductor sector. According to Samsung Electronics on Thursday, the company logged 76.78 trillion won ($54 billion) in sales and 10.85 trillion won in operating profits in the third quarter. The company’s device solutions unit, which is in charge of Samsung’s chip businesses, saw its operating profits almost halve to 5.12 trillion wo

Oct. 27, 2022

Science Ministry mulls guideline for Kakao to compensate free-service users

The Ministry of Science and ICT said Thursday that it is mulling writing a guideline on how tech giant Kakao should compensate its free-service users who suffered damages during its service outage earlier this month. The government hopes that the guideline, which would be the first of its kind, would help expedite the compensation process under a "first compensate" principle, a ministry official told Yonhap. This comes after Kakao Chief Executive Officer Hong Eun-taek said the company

Oct. 27, 2022

Blockchain firm X-widget tests art NFT service with gallery

Blockchain company X-widget said it began a pilot service of a platform for non-fungible tokens that it developed with a major local art gallery to use NFTs as proof of ownership of digital assets such as artworks. The NFT Contest Market Your Own Pick, or NCOP, is a Web 3.0 platform that allows users to discover and assess the value of artworks using NFTs. It is a blockchain-based decentralized application that will be officially launched at the end of this year. Based on a strong community of a

Oct. 27, 2022