Celltrion’s COVID-19 antibody treatment, the world’s third therapy to be developed for the coronavirus, is likely to enter the US and European markets later this year, a local brokerage said in a report Monday. According to Lee Dong-geon of Shinhan Investment, the South Korean pharmaceutical firm is likely to soon apply for the US Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization for Regkirona, or CT-P59, based on the advisory meetings that the firm previously had w

Technology Aug. 23, 2021

Building on its leadership in lithium-ion batteries, widely used in cars, phones and other electronic devices, LG Energy Solution is accelerating its research for next-generation cells, with an aim of debuting solid-state batteries and lithium-sulfur batteries by 2027. The company said Sunday it also will increase its presence in the global battery market via expanding overseas manufacturing facilities. A wholly owned subsidiary of LG Chem in South Korea, the battery maker has been researchi

Technology Aug. 22, 2021

Coupang on Thursday has been slapped with fines totaling 3.29 billion won ($2.8 million) for unfair business practices, losing a case which pitted decades-old consumer goods brands against the e-commerce platform operator. The Fair Trade Commission, in announcing the decision, said Coupang has abused its position as a major online marketplace to coerce vendors, including LG Household and Healthcare, to slash the prices of products sold on its platform. Coupang violated several terms of the

Industry Aug. 19, 2021

South Korean pharmaceutical firm Korea Pharma said Wednesday that the company’s hyperlipidemia drug could potentially be effective against the COVID-19 virus, citing a study result published in international journal Frontiers in Pharmacology. 　 According to the study conducted by Keele University and other institutions, fenofibrate and fenofibric acid, the active metabolite of fenofibrate, reduced the viral infection by up to 70 percent. Fenofibric acid is one of the core ingredients of

Technology Aug. 18, 2021

Satrec Initiative, a South Korean manufacturer of small- and medium-size observation satellites, will push for the development of an Earth mapping satellite with the world’s highest resolution imaging system, the firm said Wednesday. Named SpaceEye-T, the envisioned aircraft is a 700-kilogram satellite designed to observe the Earth offering imagery with resolution as high as 30 centimeters per pixel, precise enough to verify car models on the ground. The company plans to launch it by

Technology Aug. 18, 2021

South Korean companies operating in Vietnam have provided a total of 9.2 billion won ($7.8 million or 180 billion dong), in donations to help the Southeast Asian country secure COVID-19 vaccines, according to officials in the South Korean Embassy in Vietnam and local media reports Tuesday. If donations from South Korean individuals are counted, the combined contribution to Vietnam’s vaccine fund could surpass 10 billion won, they said. Forking out the biggest amount was Samsung Electro

Technology Aug. 17, 2021

The pandemic has opened up a window of opportunity for South Korean pharmaceutical and biotech companies to advance to the global stage. Several local players posted strong earnings by exporting self-developed test kits to foreign countries and secured contract manufacturing deals for COVID-19 vaccines. As a result, the number of pharmaceutical and biotech firms with sales exceeding 1 trillion won ($860.2 million) has increased to nine in 2020 from six a year earlier. Contract development

Technology Aug. 14, 2021

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion on Friday said the company’s operating profit fell 10.2 percent in the second quarter through an earnings report. The firm’s operating profit stood at 163.2 billion won during the April-June period, down 10.2 percent from the same period last year. Its sales inched up 0.7 percent to 431.8 billion won. The company said its second-quarter revenue went slightly up, backed by increased overseas sales of the company’s infliximab bios

Technology Aug. 13, 2021

South Korea has signed a contract with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to purchase 30 million doses of the drugmaker’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in 2022, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Friday. The deal is part of Seoul’s plan to procure 50 million vaccine booster shots for the country’s population of 52 million, according to KDCA Director Jeong Eun-kyeong. Pfizer’s first batch will ship out in the first quarter of next year, the KDCA added. Under t

Technology Aug. 13, 2021

South Korean drugmaker Samsung Bioepis said Friday that global sales of five major biosimilar products increased 30 percent on-year in the first half of this year. Sales of the five biosimilar products during the first half reached $166 million, from $128 million from the same period a year earlier, according to an earnings report of its global pharmaceutical partner Organon International, a spinoff of US-based Merck. The five products are etanercept, infliximab, adalimumab, trastuzumab and

Technology Aug. 13, 2021

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion said Thursday that the company’s COVID-19 antibody treatment has won an emergency approval from the Brazilian government. According to Celltrion, the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency gave emergency use authorization to the company’s COVID-19 treatment Regkirona, or CT-P59. The approval was based on results from all three phases of the clinical study of COVID-19 treatment Rekirona, as well as preclinical studies that suggest the effic

Technology Aug. 12, 2021

GC Pharma on Thursday reported positive top-line results from the phase 3 clinical trial of its immunoglobulin product GC5107. The clinical study results have been published in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Immunology, the company said. The phase 3 study was conducted on 49 patients who were diagnosed with primary immunodeficiency. The patients aged between 3-70 received infusions of GC5107 doses every 21 or 28 days for 12 months at 17 medical institutions in the US and Canada. Th

Technology Aug. 12, 2021

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion is pushing for a broader use of its COVID-19 treament, Regkirona, both here and abroad. Presently, Regkirona, or CT-P59, is allowed to be used on patients with severe symptoms or high risk groups with mild symptoms only. The company said Wednesday that it has asked the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for permission to use on COVID-19 patients aged over 12, with mild or severe symptoms. Celltrion said it has filed clinical data from its phase 3 cli

Technology Aug. 11, 2021

LG Electronics announced Wednesday that the company will join the Business Ambition for 1.5°C, an international alliance of companies for carbon emission reductions. The global campaign led by the UN, calls on businesses to set targets to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The collaborative action, which is in line with the Paris Agreement, also seeks for net zero carbon by 2050, the company added. LG Electronics is the first South Korean fi

Technology Aug. 11, 2021

SK Bioscience has been given the green light to proceed with a late stage clinical trial of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, heightening expectations for a homegrown vaccine becoming available next year. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced Tuesday that it has given approval to the SK Group company’s plan for the final-stage Phase 3 study of GBP510, based on interim data from the company’s phase 1clinical trial. Developed in collaboration with the University of Washingt

Technology Aug. 10, 2021