Two days into online vaccine bookings for those aged 18-49, South Korea has experienced no major errors and system crashes so far, unlike previous sessions for other age groups. According to government officials, the main reason behind the smoother operation is a reduction of traffic. The country has divided the eligible population into 10 groups, depending on the last digit of their birth date, and allows them to book their vaccine slots only on a designated day that matches their number.

Technology Aug. 10, 2021

Now granted parole, Samsung Group’s de facto leader Lee Jae-yong will be released from the Seoul Detention Center at 10 a.m. Friday. His freedom, however, could be short-lived, as he is fighting two more criminal trials -- one on alleged accounting fraud and other offenses during a merger of two Samsung affiliates and another for his alleged use of the anesthetic propofol without a prescription. He was behind bars for his conviction for bribing former President Park Geun-hye as part of

Technology Aug. 9, 2021

Every summer around this time, South Korea releases hundreds of prisoners either on parole or pardons, in celebration of Liberation Day on Aug. 15. This year, the traditional practice of clemency has drawn particular attention as it could include one of the richest men in the country: Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, the de-facto chief of Samsung Group. Come Monday, a parole committee within the Ministry of Justice will convene for a final review of candidates, which will det

Technology Aug. 8, 2021

More than 6 out of 10 South Korean parents are willing to have their children vaccinated, a local survey has found. A research team at Busan National University Hospital published the findings Thursday after it had surveyed 343 individuals across the country between May 25 and June 3. A total of 226 of those polled were parents with children under 18, while the rest were children and adolescents between the ages of 10-18. The survey was conducted when the inoculation age limit was 16, the r

Technology Aug. 5, 2021

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion announced Wednesday that the company will develop a messenger RNA vaccine that can protect against COVID-19 variants, under a partnership with US-based biotech firm TriLink BioTechnologies. TriLink is a San Diego-based contract development and manufacturing organization for synthesis of nucleic acids and mRNA capping analogs. “Under the partnership with TriLink, (Celltrion) will develop a mRNA vaccine platform, through which the company could

Technology Aug. 4, 2021

Boryung Pharmaceutical on Tuesday disclosed clinical trial results that showed its hypertension drug Kanarb is effective in controlling the blood pressure of patients who have experienced a stroke. By keeping patients’ blood pressure under control, the drug helped reduce the risk of recurrent strokes and major vascular events, it added. The clinical study was conducted at 27 medical institutions in Korea during a 24-week period, involving 1,035 patients who previously experienced an i

Technology Aug. 3, 2021

South Korea‘s first centralized institutional review board kicked off operations Friday, amid hopes it would expedite the review of drugs and treatments used to treat serious conditions, including COVID-19. An institutional review board, or IRB, is a constituted group designated to review and monitor biomedical research involving human subjects. Many hospitals, universities and other medical institutions in South Korea have their own IRB, but there was no state-authorized central IRB. &l

Technology July 30, 2021

Kim Beom-su, the founder of the company behind South Korea’s most popular messaging app KakaoTalk, is now the richest person in the country, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index on Friday. Kim has seen his fortune reach $13.4 billion this year, surpassing Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman and de-facto leader Lee Jae-yong, whose net worth was estimated at $12.1 billion. Kim’s assets grew by $6 billion in 2021 alone as Kakao shares soared 91 percent, boosted by the stock m

Technology July 30, 2021

Samsung Electronics’ operating profit in the second quarter soared 54.3 percent on-year to reach 12.5 trillion won ($10.9 billion), its best quarterly performance since the third quarter of 2018. According to the firm’s earnings report on Thursday, sales in the April-June period increased 20.2 percent to 63.67 trillion won, the highest for any second quarter to date. The robust performance was largely driven by the semiconductor business. When broken down, the semiconductor busi

Technology July 29, 2021

South Korean companies operating in virus-stricken Southeast Asian countries have asked for the government’s help in procuring COVID-19 vaccines for its workers there, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Wednesday. They also called for relaxed quarantine requirements on inbound business travel to Korea at a recent online meeting with ministry officials. The meeting was organized as a number of Southeast Asian countries are reporting explosive surges in infections driven by

Technology July 28, 2021

Samsung Biologics, a biopharmaceutical unit of South Korea‘s top conglomerate Samsung Group, posted all-time high earnings for the second quarter, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday. The company’s sales in the April-June period reached 412.2 billion won ($357.1 million), up 34 percent from a year earlier. Operating profit soared 106 percent on-year to reach 166.8 billion won during the same period. Samsung Biologics said the improved earnings were backed by new contra

Technology July 27, 2021

Factory workers at Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor, SK hynix and other major manufacturers in South Korea began getting their vaccine shots on Tuesday, the health authorities said. They are part of the 303,159 workers from 43 large companies that operate large production facilities here and have in-house clinics, covered by the country’s first factory vaccine rollout program, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The shots to be injected have changed from Mod

Technology July 27, 2021

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion has submitted for global review the results of an animal study which it said suggested the efficacy of its COVID-19 treatment Regkirona against the delta variant, the firm said Monday. It also added that its US partner tasked with developing an inhaled version of the monoclonal antibody treatment also known as CT-P59 or regdanvimab has secured a $7 million funding from the US Army Medical Research & Development Command. According to the compan

Technology July 26, 2021

South Korean government spending on research equipment and facilities declined during the five years ending in 2019, but the country spent more on research and development during the same time frame, a report said Sunday. According to the paper by the Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning based on 2019 data, the government spent 678.5 billion won ($588.97 million) on research hardware in 2019, down from 930.2 billion won in 2017 and 971.1 billion won in 2015. Over the 2015-201

Technology July 25, 2021

Not content with stopping at fast-food tills, toll booths and bank tellers, tech is coming for influencers’ jobs, too. A new wave of artificial intelligence-created digital characters has leapt across the uncanny valley -- the chasm in appeal for renderings that are unsettlingly, but not convincingly lifelike -- and risen to the fore of the marketing world, in some cases clinching deals worth millions of dollars. Korean companies have developed their own virtual influencers, but they a

Technology July 24, 2021