Daewoong Pharmaceutical gained the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s approval to conduct a phase 1 clinical trial of niclosamide as a potential COVID-19 treatment, the company said Monday. Daewoong is currently testing its niclosamide pipeline DWRX2003 in India and Philippines, where the company says the progress is smooth. Daewoong plans to enter phase 2/3 trial in multiple nations before this year ends, and aims to apply for conditional approval or emergency use of the drug upon phas

Industry Oct. 12, 2020

Joh Sung-wook, chairperson of the Fair Trade Commission, will look into Google’s purported anti-competitive practice of taking 30 percent commission on in-app purchases. Joh, speaking at the National Assembly’s inspection of the FTC on Thursday, said that what Google does may eventually affect the end-consumer, and that its monopoly of the market calls for a review. Upon being asked whether the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act may apply in the case of Google’s 30 perc

Industry Oct. 8, 2020

CrystalGenomics on Thursday said it appointed Gavin Choy as the CEO of its US subsidiary, CG Pharmaceuticals. Choy has 27 years of experience in researching and developing anticancer and antiviral treatments, as well as four successful clinical trial design applications with the US Food and Drug Administration, CrystalGenomics said. At his new post, Choy will help CrystalGenomics advance its COVID-19 treatment pipeline for pancreatic cancer treatment research in the US. Choy holds a doctorat

Industry Oct. 8, 2020

Celltrion’s Xolair biosimilar CT-P39 was given the Korean drug authority’s green light to proceed to a clinical phase 3 trial in Korea, the company said Thursday. The company plans to begin the late stage human test of the pipeline first in Korea, and expand to 600 patients suffering from chronic spontaneous urticaria in seven countries. So far, in Australia, Celltrion has gained midterm data for the drug’s safety in the human body from the phase 1 clinical trial that is bei

Industry Oct. 8, 2020

Meditoxin, South Korea’s first botulinum toxin product, was selected by dermatologists and plastic surgeons as the most preferred product for smoothing wrinkles, developer Medytox said Wednesday. In the first issue of the journal Aesthetics, published by the Korean Association for Laser, Dermatology and Trichology, Meditoxin received 51.6 percent of the votes, winning the top spot among Korean botulinum toxin products. Hugel’s Botulax came in second at 32.5 percent and Daewoong Pha

Industry Oct. 7, 2020

  진행자: 임정요, Paul Kerry 1. Foreign minister in hot water over husband's US trip to purchase yacht 요약: 강경화 외교부장관의 남편 이일병 교수가 코로나19 사태에 여행자제 권고에도 불구하고 개인 요트 구매를 위해 미국 여행을 떠나 논란이 일고 있다. [1] Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha has been hit by controversy over her husband’s recent trip to the US presumably to purchase a yacht, with political parties lambasting the excursion as “inappropriate,” saying it went against her own recommendation that people re

Podcast Oct. 7, 2020

How far has humanity come in preventing -- or rewinding -- neurodegeneration? Designed Cells, a Korean stem cell therapy company, has the ambitious dream of achieving something no one has ever yet succeeded in doing: curing dementia. Dementia, which can be but is not always a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, is a cognitive dysfunction commonly found in aged seniors. However, it is not a normal part of aging -- the destructive effects of dementia go beyond the ordinary forgetfulness that mi

Technology Oct. 6, 2020

Green Cross Medical Science Corporation, the diagnostics kits affiliate of GC, signed a $19 million deal to export diagnostic devices that will simultaneously and separately detect COVID-19 and influenza. GCMS will provide Polish company Handprod with $11 million worth of blood sugar measurement devices and glycated hemoglobin evaluation systems; and provide Swiss firm Medysis with $8 million worth of a combined diagnosis kits for COVID-19 and influenza, as well as an immunofluorescence antigen

Industry Oct. 6, 2020

GC Pharma on Monday said that it completed the sales of its American subsidiaries to Spanish firm Grifols three months after they initiated talks. “The proceeds from the transaction will be used to streamline management and for new business investments,” said Huh Yong-jun, CEO of GC. At $460 million, the sales of Green Cross BioTherapeutics in Montreal, Canada, and GCAM in the US, amount to the biggest cross border transaction of business units for a Korean pharmaceuticals firm.

Industry Oct. 5, 2020

LG Electronics said Monday that it has completed the installation of an organic light-emitting diode screen on Teheran-ro in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. It is the country’s biggest light-box-style screen for outdoor advertisements, according to the firm. The 13-by-50-meter OLED advertisement panel appears on the facade of the Grand Intercontinental Seoul Parnas. The surface area of the panel is 650 square meters -- enough room for more than 510 of the company’s 65-inch TVs. The area where L

Industry Oct. 5, 2020

Chuseok is Korea’s autumnal holiday, a time for sharing the year’s harvest together with family. It is the perfect time to offer gifts to family elders, business partners and anyone you’d like to be on extra good terms with -- or just to prove you’re now legitimately in the adulting phase of life. 1. Cash Who doesn’t love cash? Cash gifts are arguably the most preferred way of showing a person that you genuinely care in South Korea. Because by giving them the mon

Industry Sept. 30, 2020

Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow has become the face of Merz Aesthetics’ global campaign for its botulinum toxin product, Merz Korea said Friday. Paltrow has been using Xeomin for years before she agreed to become the ambassador for the wrinkle-removing neurotoxin, according to Merz Aesthetics.  This global campaign is built on Paltrow’s principles for beauty, which is that women should permit themselves to do whatever they need for their happiness. Paltrow will use the hashtag

Industry Sept. 25, 2020

Celltrion Group announced Friday it has established Celltrion Healthcare Holdings as a first step of its plan to merge three affiliates by the end of 2021. The creation of the holding company is required to materialize the merger plan in compliance with the legal standards for Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act. The merger of Celltrion, Celltrion Pharma and Celltrion Healthcare has been widely expected since early this year. It will be a merger of the existing Celltrion Holdings, comprisi

Industry Sept. 25, 2020

There is a surge of movement from Korean telecommunications firms noticeably seeking to enter the digital health care market. KT on Friday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with local gene sequencing company NGeneBio to jointly develop a personalized health care product based on genetic data analysis. Earlier in the week, KT also said that it will work together with Medical Partners Korea to launch an information and communication technology-based epidemic control system in Kaz

Industry Sept. 25, 2020

Merck has donated 25,000 euros ($29,000) to an Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, multicultural children care center, the Merck Korea said Thursday. The fund will be used, among other things, for a Korean-language tutor, a computer room and a multimedia facility, according to nonprofit organization Loving Neighbors. This was the first official activity undertaken by Kim Woo-kyu, the new managing director of Merck Korea, since taking post. Kim emphasized the importance

Industry Sept. 24, 2020