Samsung BioLogics has turned to black in the third quarter as per its latest earnings report Wednesday.The company officially posted revenue of 184.8 billion won ($157.6 million), 23.6 billion won operating profit and 44.1 billion won net profit in the third quarter. The revenue was a 136.6 percent increase from the second quarter. BioLogics cited the performance was due to a slowdown in its first and second plants and newly recognized profits from the third plant. A slowdown is a necessary bien

Industry Oct. 23, 2019

A fresh study at Oxford University suggests that obsessive gaming may be an expression of underlying psychosocial frustration rather than an evil in itself, contradicting the World Health Organization’s recent decision to identify it as a mental illness.According to a recent research paper by professor Andrew K. Przybylski at the Oxford Internet Institute, moderate use of screen time can be good for one’s health.“In the absence of compelling evidence linking digital screen enga

Industry Oct. 23, 2019

Authorities suspended the trading of biotech HLB’s stocks on Wednesday to offset a sudden 40 percent jump over two days on the back of hyped expectations for a new cancer drug.HLB will have a pre-new drug application meeting for Rivoceranib with the US’ Food and Drug Administration on Friday, by Korean time.HLB stock ended Tuesday 7.75 percent higher at 180,800 won ($154) after hitting a new 52-week high of 209,700 won during intraday trading, edging out Celltrion Healthcare.On the p

Industry Oct. 23, 2019

South Korea’s game company Nexon will host the fourth annual Nexon Youth Programming Challenge on Saturday. The event, designed to nurture the next generation of programmers in Korea, gives coding problems for students to solve using any programming languages among Python, Java, C#, C++ and C. Some 4,300 youths aged between 12 and 19 have taken part in the online preliminary contest, of whom the top 80 were selected to enter in the final round this week.  “We hope the young stud

Industry Oct. 22, 2019

Technologies used to build games are now being used across different sectors.Unity Technologies, whose software Unity is used to program mobile games including augmented reality game Pokemon Go, is aggressively expanding to the automotive, architecture, engineering and construction, and virtual shopping sectors, as well as media and entertainment. Unity is used by about 7,000 companies worldwide. Disney’s “Lion King” movie this year also used the program to create the hype

Industry Oct. 22, 2019

A South Korean pharmacists’ association on Monday sided with drug wholesalers demanding 3 percent reimbursement for costs incurred in the aftermath of a recall on ranitidine. Ranitidine is a drug used to treat ulcers of the stomach and intestine. In September, the US Food and Drug Agency found that the drug contained a carcinogenic substance called N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). The most popular ranitidine drug, GSK’s Zantac, was pulled from shelves, as were its many generic versions

Industry Oct. 21, 2019

LG Chem announced Monday it has become the first South Korean battery manufacturer to join the Responsible Minerals Initiative.RMI is a global association established in 2008 that monitors the ethical sourcing of minerals -- such as gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten -- mined in conflict regions. It also keeps an eye on the sustainable mining of cobalt, an indispensable raw material for batteries used for smartphones and electric vehicles.LG Chem said it joined the RMI to transparently source the

Industry Oct. 21, 2019

The US Food and Drug Administration is likely to make a final decision in November on approval for Cenobamate, an investigational antiepileptic drug developed by SK Biopharmaceuticals.The company is the pharmaceuticals development business under SK Holdings. The firm has been researching for new treatments for diseases related to central nervous system since 1993. Since 2011, when SK Biopharmaceuticals was spun off to become a separate entity, the company has used roughly 480 billion w

Industry Oct. 18, 2019

Korean pharma and biopharma companies are considering the inevitable: the advance to the Chinese market. According to Korea Health Industry Development Institute, Friday, China was the second biggest market for pharmaceuticals after the US in 2018.The Chinese pharma market was set at $142.7 billion, still a far cry from the US at $361.5 billion. Japan trailed in third place at $108 billion and Germany at $71.7 billion. Korea ranked No. 13 worldwide at $17.4 billion.  Yuhan Corp., one of Kor

Industry Oct. 18, 2019

Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s wrinkle-removing botulinum toxin Nabota has launched in Canada under the name Nuceiva, the company said Thursday. Marketed outside of Korea by US-based Evolus, Daewoong’s product is the first Korea-made BTX to penetrate the US market. Evolus gained the US Food and Drug Administration’s sales approval for the drug in March and launched it under the name Jeuveau in May.  As for the launch in Canada, Park Sung-soo, head of Daewoong’s Nabota bus

Industry Oct. 17, 2019

The Supreme Court of South Korea upheld earlier rulings to suspend the Financial Services Commission’s restrictions on Samsung BioLogics, citing fear of irreparable damage to the company.　Samsung BioLogics shares on Wednesday jumped just shy of 4 percent to 339,000 won ($285). The Supreme Court’s decision is in line with the earlier ruling from the High Court, which had declared at end-May, “If, according to the suggested restriction, an FSC-appointed auditor replaces top finan

Industry Oct. 16, 2019

The South Korean bio market is not faring well, or so the media here says, fanning anxiety among individual investors. But PMG Investment Solutions’ Head of Healthcare Investment Kwon Myoung-ok brushes that idea aside with a light chortle. “Failure is in the nature of biotech research and development,” Kwon said in an interview with The Korea Herald at the Korea Bio office in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. “The foreign big pharmas with 100 to 200 years of h

Industry Oct. 16, 2019

Daewoong and Medytox once again butted heads over newly submitted DNA investigation reports about each other’s BTX strains. The South Korean manufacturers of wrinkle-erasing botulinum toxin products Meditoxin and Nabota are entangled in legal battles in Korea and the US regarding the source of Daewoong’s BTX strain. Medytox claims Daewoong stole its BTX through a former employee who moved to Daewoong. DNA analysis of the two firms’ BTX was intended to shine a light on the riddl

Industry Oct. 15, 2019

LG Chem was the biggest beneficiary of government subsidies for innovative pharmaceutical firms last year, according to the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee on Tuesday. The government doled out subsidies of 92.2 billion won ($78 million) to 45 pharmaceutical firms carrying out innovative projects in 2018. LG Chem got 13.6 billion won, followed by Daewoong Pharmaceutical (9.2 billion won), Chong Kun Dang (9.1 billion won), Viromed (8.9 billion won), Celltrion (6.8

Industry Oct. 15, 2019

How does it add up when a games company acquires a home appliance rental business? Netmarble, a Korean firm that focuses on mobile game development and distribution, was on Monday named the preferred bidder for a 25.08 percent stake in Woongjin Coway, a firm that operates subscription services for water and air purifiers, mattresses and other miscellaneous household appliances.Netmarble, through an investors’ conference call the same day, explained that it will combine the technological ex

Industry Oct. 14, 2019