SK Pharmteco, a consolidated global pharmaceuticals manufacturing chain of SK Group, will provide US-based Phlow with pharmaceutical ingredients to offset supply shortfall in the country, SK Holdings announced Wednesday. The Donald Trump administration has announced it will buttress the project with $812 million funding over the next 10 years. SK Holdings owns US’ Ampac Fine Chemicals and more contract manufacturing organization facilities in Europe and Korea. In January 2019, it estab

Industry May 20, 2020

Over 20 Korean biologics firms are revving up their engines to go public in 2020. DreamCIS, Psomagen, SCM Lifescience, Kainos Medicine and SK Biopharmaceuticals are set to list on main bourse Kospi and secondary Kosdaq before July. Market watchers are also keeping their eyes on HK inno.N Corp. (formerly CJ Healthcare), GI Innovation and Vuno. All in all, counting the firms who have requested stock market operator Korea Exchange for preliminary examination for listing, the biologics firms that m

Industry May 20, 2020

Bioneer, a molecular diagnostic kit and analytics reader machine maker, said Wednesday it has signed an agreement with Indonesia’s Genomik Solidaritas to supply COVID-19 test kit readers worth 6.8 billion won ($5.5 million). As per the deal, Bioneer will deliver 25 sets of ExiStation 48, including nucleic acid diagnostic agent and real-time polymerase chain reaction COVID-19 test kits. Nine ExiStation 48s and kits, worth 1.5 billion won, will be supplied first, followed by the remainin

Industry May 20, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has clipped wings of many global conferences in the first half of 2020, but not IFA 2020. Unlike many other exhibitions that have opted to continue this year's event in an online format, the 2020 Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin will push through as a real-life event from Sept. 3 through 5 at the usual location of Messe Berlin exhibition hall. IFA Executive Director Jens Heithecker, at the online global press conference conducted on Tuesday, said that this year's I

Industry May 19, 2020

Major tectonic shifts were noticed in the rankings of top 10 South Korean biologics and pharmaceutical firms in the first quarter this year, according to latest data Tuesday. Almost every company had their placements readjusted based on their first-quarter earnings reports. Celltrion soared to the top with revenue of 372.8 billion won ($304 million) from last year’s seventh spot at 221.7 billion won. Yuhan, which sat on the top last year with 345 billion won revenue, slid to the second

Industry May 19, 2020

Samsung Biologics, the world’s largest contract development and contract manufacturing organization for biologics drugs, said Tuesday that its third plant complies with international standards for business continuity management systems. The plant is certified for compliance with ISO22301, a global standard set by the British Standard Institution, meaning the company’s business operations would experience minimal disruptions in the event of an accident or natural disaster. Samsung

Industry May 19, 2020

GC Pharma said Monday that it would give out its blood plasma-derived COVID-19 treatment for free to domestic patients. The company’s pipeline, GC5131A, is currently under development and mass distribution is due in the second half of 2020. Huh Eun-chul, the CEO of GC Pharma, wrote to shareholders requesting their understanding over the company’s decision to put long-term health care stability over short-term profit. Many firms have previously offered potential COVID-19 treatmen

Industry May 18, 2020

Korean biotech firm Genexine’s COVID-19 deoxyribonucleic acid vaccine pipeline GX-19 is ready for clinical testing, as soon as it applies to the Drug Ministry for human testing. Binex, which is part of the consortium that developed the drug, said Monday that it has completed manufacturing the supply enough for a clinical phase 1 trials of the drug. GX-19 is a potential COVID-19 vaccine developed based on Genexine’s DNA vaccine know-how. It is being collectively pursued by a consor

Industry May 18, 2020

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is doling out a series of funding for epidemic countermeasure research in Korea. SK Bioscience, a vaccine researcher and developer firm, said Monday that it has nabbed $3.6 million financial backing from the US foundation for to research the biologic structure of an optimal antigen for epidemics. This comes a day after the announcement of some $9.7 million funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for Korean telecom company KT’s research fo

Industry May 18, 2020

Korean telecommunications firm KT will research for epidemic preparedness solutions, backed with 12 billion won ($9.7 million) in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. KT said Sunday that the philanthropic foundation had wished for an epidemics monitoring study carried out in Korea -- a country of widespread smartphone penetration equipped with 5G infrastructure. The research, called “A Next Generation Surveillance Study for Epidemic Preparedness,” will seek to dev

Industry May 17, 2020

The power people associate with lush hair is perhaps most palpable in the biblical story of Samson and Delilah. Samson, a man of formidable strength, is weakened after Delilah crops his hair -- the source of his strength. Abundant hair is a sign of youthfulness, health and vivacity. It is often associated with good looks, and many men who begin to lose it go to great lengths to reverse the course of balding. Currently, as far as pills go, there are more than 200 generic versions of finasterid

Industry May 16, 2020

　South Korea’s Hanmi Pharmaceutical may consider legal action against global biopharma Sanofi, as the French company abruptly decided to halt participation in further research on efpeglenatide, a potential treatment for Type 2 diabetes. The two have been jointly developing efpeglenatide, discovered by Hanmi.   　The Korean pharma issued a notice to shareholders Thursday, saying there were still 120 days to renegotiate and that it might take legal action against Sanofi if circumstances

Industry May 14, 2020

    　Real-time polymerase chain reaction COVID-19 detection test kit maker Seegene saw a whopping 600 percent jump in its consolidated operating profit and net profit in the first quarter of 2020, according to company filings Thursday.   　Seegene rose from being one of many molecular diagnosis companies to a globally acknowledged high-profile firm after it became one of the first to produce a real-time PCR COVID-19 test kit.   　The company said it posted a consolidated rev

Industry May 14, 2020

The annual Bio Korea International Convention will take place online for the first time this year, in an innovative approach that involves virtual reality exhibition pavilion and remote business meetings. “Instead of calling off the global gathering for the opportunity to share the latest medical and pharmaceutical endeavors, we have decided to jump over the spatial limitations by taking the event online,” said Kwon Deok-cheol, president of Korea Health Industry Development Institu

Industry May 14, 2020

Optimistic timelines regarding the pharmaceutical race to produce a drug for COVID-19 have been met with skepticism, but even doubters do not deny that a vaccine or a treatment is desperately needed. “There can never be a complete (economic) recovery unless a working vaccine is developed and distributed,” said Chung Chul, senior vice president and acting president of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, in a press briefing Tuesday at the Sejong Government Complex

Industry May 13, 2020