Celltrion recently gained approval from the Canadian Health Ministry to begin sales of Truxima, a rituximab biosimilar used to treat blood cancer, the company announced Thursday.“Celltrion will quickly enter the Canadian market so that patients there will enjoy a more affordable high-quality anticancer biosimilar,” said a Celltrion representative. This is the first time Canada has approved a rituximab biosimilar. Truxima (Celltrion)Canada has made efforts of late to cut drug costs and improve pa

Industry April 11, 2019

South Korea excels in the field of regenerative medicine, one of three key next-generation gene technologies, said Amit Agarwal, managing director at Deloitte Consulting in San Francisco.Agarwal spoke at Deloitte Anjin’s seminar for Life Sciences and Healthcare Solutions, held at the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association in Seocho, Seoul on Tuesday.With worldwide health care spending estimated to top $10 trillion by 2022, global pharma sales are anticipated to reach $1.2

Industry April 10, 2019

Drug wholesalers stuck with having to dispose of unsold pharmaceuticals worth hundreds of billions of won are working with their suppliers to limit the losses.While no industry enjoys zero leftover inventory, an accumulation of specific drugs that are no longer in doctors’ prescriptions spell a particular problem, a KPDA spokesperson said.“Medicines aren’t like clothes that can be sold off at a discount. Unsold drugs have to be discarded. It becomes complete loss,” he said, adding that in most c

Industry April 10, 2019

The most well-known fact about late Ilhan New, or Yu Il-han, is that he founded one of the oldest South Korean pharmaceutical company, 93-year-old Yuhan Corp. What is lesser known is how New had studied in the US even before the Japanese colonial rule of Korea to learn the “Western ways,” or how he went to high school on an American football scholarship, or had a multicultural family with US-educated Chinese doctor Ho Mi-ri, and last but not least that he bequeathed all his worldly possessions f

Industry April 7, 2019

The state-run antitrust agency has notified Samsung BioLogics that it is no longer a holding company of Samsung Bioepis, the company said Friday in a regulatory filing. Because Samsung BioLogics has only 43 percent of its total assets invested in Samsung Bioepis -- less than the required 50 percent -- it is no longer a holding company under FTC’s Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act, the statement added.Samsung BioLogics, mainly a contract manufacturing organization for pharmaceuticals, establ

Industry April 5, 2019

A novel degenerative disc treatment developed by South Korean pharmaceutical firm Yuhan Corp., identified as YH14618, is nearing the clinical trial phase in the US.Yuhan Corp. on Friday said it had received the remaining $550,000 of the $650,000 down payment from Spine Biopharma, the US company to which Yuhan licensed out YH14618 in July 2018.Spine Biopharma plans to apply to the US Food and Drug Administration before the end of this year for permission to conduct clinical trials of YH14618. Bac

Industry April 5, 2019

A record-scale fire broke out in the eastern coastal region of Gangwon Province on Thursday evening, affecting Goseong, Sokcho, Gangneung, Donghae and Inje. The main conflagration was extinguished by Friday morning, but flames were reportedly still blazing in limited areas as of 10:30 a.m.(Yonhap)(Yonhap)(Yonhap)(Yonhap)(Yonhap)The fire reportedly started from a power switch in Goseong operated by the Korea Electric Power Corporation. Gusts of wind blowing at 30 meters per second quickly carried

Social Affairs April 5, 2019

Celebrating 10 years of operations here, Epic Games Korea announced Wednesday it will be launching its online game distribution channel, Epic Games Store, here.The store is the latest project of the game company whose main business is the massively popular “Fortnite” and game development suite Unreal Engine. While Epic Games Store launched globally at the end of last year, the opening was stalled for Korea due to game ratings regulations. Every legally distributed game in Korea has to have its u

Industry April 3, 2019

The South Korean biohealth industry’s monthly exports surpassed $800 million in March, a 13 percent growth from a year earlier, mainly due to increased shipments to the US and China. Trade Ministry data released Tuesday revealed that Korea exported $111.7 million worth of biohealth products to the US in March, $80 million to China, $60.3 milion to ASEAN nations and $145.9 million to European countries.Pharmaceuticals exports marked $401 million, up 17 percent from a month earlier and marking the

Industry April 2, 2019

Kolon Life Science on Monday suspended the distribution and sales of Invossa, its main cash cow drug, following a report that an ingredient in the drug has been mislabeled since 2003.KLS shares closed at 52,700 won ($46) on this day, a 29.92 percent tumble from the previous day.　The report was authored by Kolon Group’s US biopharma unit Kolon TissueGene, which said that a Short Tandem Repeat analysis revealed the osteoarthritis treatment drug was made based on a cell different than that specifie

Industry April 1, 2019

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are going head to head in the fight for 5G smartphone market dominance in South Korea. Not long after Samsung revealed plans to begin sales of the world’s first 5G-compatible Galaxy S10 as of April 5, LG Electronics said Sunday that it would begin sales of its first 5G smartphone, the LG V50 ThinQ, at a competitive price of 1.2 million won ($1,050) starting April 19. The LG V50 ThinQ costs 200,000 won less than the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G. (LG Electronics)Mar

Industry March 31, 2019

SK Holdings announced Thursday that it will invest 170 billion won ($150 million) to Blue Racer Midstream, a US natural gas gathering and processing business. In 2017, SK Holdings made a $1 billion investment in Eureka Midstream Holdings, another US gas company.Both Blue Racer Midstream and Eureka Midstream Holdings have offices in Pennsylvania and Ohio in the Marcellus-Utica Basin, which is the largest natural gas reserve in North America.Major pipeline constructions began in the region last ye

Industry March 28, 2019

Korean conglomerates are diving in to the field of biotechnology one after another, but they have no long-term prospects if biosimilars are the only area they invest in, says Cho Joong-myung, a 71-year-old bio-venture founder who has dedicated his life to the research and development of novel drugs.Cho served as senior vice president and director of research and development at Biotech Research Institute of LG Life Science (then LG Chemical) from 1984 to 2000. The lab started with only a handful

Industry March 27, 2019

The Libyan government signed on with South Korea’ Daewoo Engineering & Construction to build a power plant that will alleviate electricity woes in the country, Daewoo E&C said Tuesday.The company signed a memorandum of understanding to build Western Mountain Power Plant with the General Electricity Company of Libya on March 20. The Western Mountain Power Plant is a 900MW-capacity generator located in Al Hawamind, some 200 kilometers southwest from Libya’s capital city of Tripoli.  Daewoo E&C CEO

Industry March 26, 2019

Celltrion CEO Seo Jeong-jin said at a shareholders meeting Tuesday that his company could reach 30 trillion won ($26.5 billion) in sales as soon as 2027. For 2020, he suggested a figure of 5 trillion won.Celltrion has yet to cross the threshold of 1 trillion won, although the company set its own best mark in 2018 with 982.1 billion won in sales profit, an increase of 33 billion won from the year before. Seo, while attending a business trip in Japan, connected via phone to speak to shareholders a

Industry March 26, 2019