LG Electronics said Wednesday its operating profit in the second quarter is estimated at 1.11 trillion won ($979.4 million), up 65.5 percent on-year. In a regulatory filing, the firm said its sales during the April-June period is likely to have reached 17.11 trillion won, an increase by 48.4 percent from a year earlier. The company’s quarterly operating profit would top 1 trillion for a second consecutive quarter, the earnings guidance showed. In the first quarter, the electronics gia

Technology July 7, 2021

Hyundai Pharmaceutical announced Tuesday that it had filed an application for authorization to market an abortion pill in South Korea. Mifegymiso consists of one tablet of mifepristone and four tablets of misoprostol. Mifepristone, formerly RU-486, is known by the brand name Mifegyne in Korea. In March this year, Hyundai Pharm signed an exclusive agreement with Linepharma International to sell Mifegyne in the Korean market. If approved, Mifegymiso would become the first legal abortion pill

Technology July 6, 2021

South Korea’s top wireless carrier SK Telecom said Monday that the company has started a test run of its 5G network running on the 28-gigahertz bandwidth at Coex, in Samseong-dong, Seoul. For the test run of super-fast wireless connection, the company has set up an exhibition at a 36,000-square-meter area at Coex, offering a glimpse into SKT’s future technology businesses, such as the metaverse. During the event, which runs through Sunday, anyone who visits can use the “mi

Technology July 5, 2021

South Korean central nervous system drug developer SK Biopharmaceuticals CEO Cho Jeong-woo vowed to help the firm attain a value of 50 trillion won ($44.02 billion) by 2030 and make the list of the world’s top 10 health care firms. SK Biopharm shared its latest corporate vision during an online event titled “Financial Story,” held Friday. During the event, SK Biopharmaceuticals presented detailed strategies to achieve the goal. SK Biopharm said the company would launch mor

Technology July 2, 2021

LG Chem Vice Chairman Shin Hak-cheol has rolled up his sleeves to recruit top-tier talent who could lead the company’s future research and development under environmental, social and governance standards. The chemical affiliate of LG Group on Friday held a conference at InterContinental Seoul COEX in southern Seoul, inviting 45 engineers who are pursuing master’s or doctorate degrees at local universities and research institutions. LG Chem’s executives joined the conferenc

Technology July 2, 2021

LG Chem announced Thursday that the company received positive results from the phase 2 clinical trial of its gout treatment candidate LC350189 in the US. LC350189 is a novel nonpurine selective inhibitor of xanthine oxidase, which oxidizes both hypoxanthine and xanthine to uric acid. High uric acid levels can increase the risk of gout. The phase 2 clinical trial in the US, which involved 156 patients, showed efficacy of the gout treatment candidate in lowering uric acid levels, accordi

Technology July 1, 2021

South Korean diagnostics company Seegene said Thursday that the company has partnered with Bio-Rad Laboratories for the clinical development and commercialization of diagnostic products in the US. Under the agreement, Seegene will provide the company’s diagnostic tests for use on Bio-Rad’s molecular diagnostic CFX96 Dx Real-Time PCR Detection Systems. The contract will run for five years from the date that the two companies win approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration.

Technology July 1, 2021

South Korea’s COVID-19 vaccine candidates can be evaluated through comparison with previously authorized vaccines. This means domestic vaccine developers will no longer have to recruit large control groups for a phase 3 clinical trial. According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Wednesday, the government has revised guidelines for phase 3 clinical trials in a bid to accelerate the development of homegrown vaccines against COVID-19. Under the new rules, drugmakers would need j

Technology June 30, 2021

South Korean biopharmaceutical companies have joined forces to co-develop and co-produce 100 million doses of a homegrown messenger RNA vaccine for COVID-19 next year, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Tuesday. Dubbed the “K-mRNA vaccine consortium,” it will be led by three major firms -- Hanmi Pharmaceutical, GC Pharma and ST Pharm -- and backed by the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association and the Korea Innovative Medicines Consortium, a gr

Technology June 29, 2021

Hanmi Pharmaceutical said Tuesday that efpeglenatide, its long-acting diabetes drug candidate, had significantly reduced the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events and kidney disease, quoting the results of phase 3 clinical trials. Sanofi, which has purchased the license for efpeglenatide from Hanmi, presented the results of the global, large-scale clinical trial at the American Diabetes Association’s 81st Scientific Sessions. The phase 3 clinical trial involved 4,076 patient

Technology June 29, 2021

South Korean firms operating large-scale factories in Vietnam have forked out tens of billions of won for the Southeast Asian country’s COVID-19 vaccines procurement plan, Korean media outlets reported said Sunday. To date, Samsung Electronics has offered 2 billion won ($1.7 million) to Vietnam’s central government and 770 million won to local governments. The amount is the largest donation made by a multinational company operating in Vietnam to the country’s vaccine supply

Industry June 27, 2021

South Korean conglomerates that operate large manufacturing facilities will start vaccinating their workers in line with the government’s efforts to boost the nationwide COVID-19 inoculation drive. Samsung Electronics will start the administration of Moderna‘s COVID-19 vaccine to its workers at its in-house clinics from July 27, according to industry sources Sunday. The firm notified its employees of the plan Friday, asking employees aged 18 to 59 at its plants and research faci

Industry June 27, 2021

Gmarket reported sharp increases in sales of vouchers for hairdressing salons, restaurant meals and cinema seats, the e-commerce giant said Thursday, calling it a sign that consumption is recovering. Sales of restaurant vouchers between May 21 and June 20 rose 67 percent on-year at Gmarket, while sales of movie tickets and vouchers for hairdressing salons respectively soared 183 percent and 365 percent on-year, the firm added. Auction, another one of the country’s major online shopping

Industry June 24, 2021

Medytox will begin a phase three clinical trial of its next-generation botulinum toxin treatment MBA-P01, according to an announcement from the company Thursday. The firm’s investigational new drug application for the new botulinum toxin treatment gained approval the previous day from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Medytox will carry out the study at four local medical institutes on a total of 318 people with moderate to severe glabellar frown lines. The firm has been developi

Technology June 24, 2021

Winia Dimchae, a South Korean home appliance brand specializing in kimchi fridges, announced Wednesday that the company would begin local sales of its ultra-low temperature freezer for COVID-19 vaccines, named Medibox. According to Winia, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has recently granted approval for the company’s Medibox, developed by WInia‘s telecommunications apparatus affiliate Dayou Plus. The new vaccine storage system has been categorized as a blood bank refrigerato

Technology June 23, 2021