HONG KONG -- What does an airline have to gain in leveraging early-stage startups?A seemingly unlikely match, Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways has set out to foster local tech startups to shape the city into a global innovation hub and lead more people to fly to and from Hong Kong for business. “This is our home, our most important market. Success of Hong Kong translates to success of Cathay,” said the company’s Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Paul Loo, in an inte

Industry July 10, 2019

Hyundai Engineering & Construction has successfully launched Caisson 227, a structure the size of a 12-story building that will play a critical role in Singapore’s Tuas Finger 3 reclamation project, the company said Sunday.A caisson is a hollow concrete structure that is used in the foundation of a bridge, breakwater or wharf. The 29-meter Caisson 227 will have its own 20,000-ton floating dock, increasing construction efficiency, Hyundai E&C said.The launch of Caisson 227 signals m

Industry July 7, 2019

South Korea ranked 12th out of 205 countries in terms of gross domestic product in 2018, maintaining its spot from a year earlier, the World Bank said Sunday. The country’s gross national income, or earnings per person, came in at No. 30 in the world. The World Bank data showed Korea’s GDP in the cited period amounted to $1.6 trillion.  Korea had ranked 14th between 2009 and 2013 before climbing a notch to No. 13 in 2015 and reaching No. 11 in 2015 and 2016. The country then sli

Industry July 7, 2019

Hanmi Pharmaceutical shares nose-dived nearly 30 percent Thursday, following news that Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals has decided to return development and global commercialization rights of Hanmi’s diabetes treatment. Hanmi shares closed at 301,500 won ($258), down 27.26 percent or 113,000 won from a day earlier. Janssen, based in Belgium, had inked a license agreement for Hanmi’s investigational drug HM12525A in November 2015, for which Hanmi receive

Industry July 4, 2019

The chief of Kolon Life Science on Thursday reiterated the safety of the now-banned joint inflammation treatment Invossa, while apologizing for the market confusion and credibility depreciation.　“As top representative, I deeply apologize on behalf of the company for causing worries and confusion to patients, investors and the medical circles,” said KLS CEO Lee Woo-suk in a press conference held at the Korea Press Center in downtown Seoul.　The disputed mislabeling of the substance in

Industry July 4, 2019

진행자: 임정요, Kevin Lee Selzer1. US, N. Korea have ended hostile relations: Moon기사요약: 문재인 대통령은 최근 비무장지대(DMZ)에서 성사된 북한 김정은 위원장과 미국 트럼프 대통령의 만남이 북미간 적대관계를 종식시키고 평화시대가 도래했다고 말했다. 아이튠즈(아이폰): https://itunes.apple.com/kr/podcast/koliaheleoldeu-paskaeseuteu/id686406253?mt=2팟빵 (안드로이드): http://www.podbbang.com/ch/6638[1] President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday that the US and North Korea have put an end to their hostile relations with the recent meeting of their leaders, who stepped back and forth over the Korean

Podcast July 3, 2019

The total real estate investments of South Korean conglomerates slid slightly to 39.6 trillion won ($33.80 billion) as of end-2018, corporate business performance reviewer CEO Score said Tuesday. The aggregated business and audit reports of 59 conglomerates showed that Lotte Group topped the list ahead of Samsung Group, it said.Lotte Group had 4.4 trillion won worth of real estate holdings for investment purposes as of last year, up 12.6 percent on-year. It spent 70.2 billion won in acquiring mo

Industry July 3, 2019

ToolGen and Genexine -- to be called ToolGenexine after merger -- held a strategy briefing for the media and investors earlier this week in an attempt to pacify their concerned shareholders.　The merger of the biotech companies, announced June 19, has stirred up mixed sentiments in the domestic bio industry. One side heralded it as a rare case of bio firms forging ties rather than the more common business model of a traditional chemical pharma firm acquiring a smaller biotech startup with innovat

Industry July 2, 2019

Korean pharma company Yuhan Corp. said through a regulatory filing Monday that it has clinched a deal worth $870 million to license out its nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) pipeline to global biopharma firm Boehringer Ingelheim for joint research and development purpose.　Yuhan and Boehringer Ingelheim’s collaboration aims to develop first-in-class dual agonist for NASH and related liver diseases that combines GLP-1 and FGF21 activity in one molecule, the companies said. 　“This mol

Industry July 1, 2019

Thinking of undergoing vision-sharpening surgery but scared if things would go awry as you grow older? Taking cue of such concerns among people contemplating lasik surgery, genetic services provider Avellino Labs, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, has developed a DNA diagnostic kit which the company claims has protected 1,108 people from blindness as of June 2019 from the 743,969 patients thus far tested.With the addition of coming keratoconus test, Avellino Labs can help millions of

Industry June 30, 2019

The South Korean biotechnology firm Celltrion has adopted Veeva Vault eTMF software to increase efficiency in managing its clinical trials, Veeva Systems announced Friday. The California-based software company’s program modernizes the clinical trial process and enhances cross-team collaboration, the company said.With the new software, Celltrion can now manage its master files in real time and can maintain all paperwork in a single cloud-based platform, Veeva Systems said. Celltrion sa

Industry June 28, 2019

Biopharma company Merck said Thursday it is looking for 18 startups for its accelerator program in Darmstadt, Germany, and Shanghai, China. This round of participants will focus on four fields of research: biosensing and interfaces; liquid biopsy technologies; clean meat; and artificial intelligence-enabled health solutions. Merck will have 12 startups for its global headquarters in Darmstadt and six for the China Innovation Hub in Shanghai. It has hosted 57 startups since the accelerator p

Industry June 27, 2019

Nexon Korea on Thursday announced seven titles for the second half of 2019, including a couple of mobile games that are handheld versions of original PC games that may be held in special regard for millennials. Talesweaver M and The Kingdom of the Winds: Yeon are mobile versions of online PC games that forged the company’s reputation and led its sales in the 1990s. Millennials, who were elementary and middle school students then who have now grown into their late-20s and 30s, are the bigge

Industry June 27, 2019

Despite the fanfare from international media including CNN, BTS World, a simulation game featuring the award-winning K-pop group, received disappointing reviews the day after its launch.Netmarble released the much-publicized game on Wednesday, in 176 countries and 14 languages simultaneously. Users took to social media to complain of “technical difficulties” and “server failures.” Some found it inconvenient to have to use an additional 544 megabytes to optimize the g

Industry June 27, 2019

South Korean game company Netmarble launched a new mobile game titled BTS World on Wednesday, featuring the world-famous K-pop star group. Downloads of the game kicked off simultaneously in 176 countries in 14 languages at 4 p.m. for early sign-ups, two hours ahead of the regular launch. Netmarble will exclusively play the new BTS song “Heartbeat” via the game as its background music. Until the “BTS World OST” album releases on Friday, the game is the only platform where

Industry June 26, 2019