South Korea’s Daewoong Pharmaceutical on Friday said that no fake copies of its botulinum toxin Nabota were circulated in South Korea, addressing public fears that the inauthentic drugs may have been sold and administered to local patients.The company’s investigation came after the local police caught two groups of vendors developing and selling fake copies of Nabota in China. The news prompted Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to issue a warning last week to local hospitals to beware of

Industry May 12, 2017

South Korean internet giant Naver released a new mobile app running on its artificial intelligence voice assistant platform Clova on Friday, officially joining the global race to develop new AI-powered services for the public.　The new app, called “Naver Clova” and currently offered in a beta version, is available for download on the Google Play app store. It is unavailable on the Apple App Store currently.(Naver)Naver Clova runs on the AI-powered voice assistant platform Clova, short for “cloud

Technology May 12, 2017

South Korea’s Netmarble Games officially went public on Korea’s main bourse Kospi on Friday, marking the country’s biggest initial public offering in seven years. 　Shares of the Korean mobile game giant opened for trading at 165,000 won ($146.70), above its IPO price of 157,000 won, and rose as high as 171,500 won, up 9.2 percent, in early morning trading before falling to hover slightly below the day’s opening price.The stocks closed at 162,000 won, down 1.82 percent from the opening price. The

Technology May 12, 2017

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles delving into the economic policies and tasks expected of the new Moon Jae-in administration. This is the second installment -- Ed.South Korea’s new President Moon Jae-in faces the challenging task of bolstering the information and communication technology sector as the country struggles to retain its footing in the fast-advancing field of ICT amid growing competition from foreign rivals.During his campaign trail, Moon pledged to spur growth thr

Technology May 11, 2017

South Korea’s Celltrion said Thursday that its first-quarter operating profit jumped 231.3 percent on-year to 89.39 billion won ($79 million), led by successful global sales of Remsima, its biosimilar copy of Johnson & Johnson’s blockbuster drug Remicade.Celltrion’s revenue during the January-March period reached 196.6 billion won, up 81.2 percent on-year, while net profit soared 468.5 percent on-year to 67.09 billion won, the company said in its earnings report. (Celltrion)The Korean drugmaker

Industry May 11, 2017

South Korea’s new President Moon Jae-in is expected to boost the country’s biopharmaceutical and health-related industries, which have continuously called for more government support and attention.There are high expectations that Moon, who assumed office Wednesday, will establish a new government body dedicated to centralized policymaking for the biopharma and health care sectors.South Korea’s new President Moon Jae-in (Yonhap)On the campaign trail, Moon pledged to create a “fourth industrial re

Industry May 10, 2017

As South Korea prepares to hold its 19th presidential election Tuesday, the country’s major internet companies have set out to provide the public with accurate, timely and convenient information about the candidates and real-time voting updates. Naver, the operator of Korea’s most widely-accessed portal website, has a special section on its election page that will continuously update voting information as the results come in. The portal operator said it will display the information based on real

Technology May 8, 2017

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles highlighting South Korea’s promising startups in the emerging sectors of digital health care and next-generation medical devices. This is the eighth installment. – Ed.Recent advances in artificial intelligence have begun to revolutionize the field of medicine and health care, as machines show potential to improve the diagnosis of illnesses and treatment planning.At the core of the movement is a form of high-level machine learning called deep le

Technology May 7, 2017

The first-quarter earnings of Pfizer and US-based Merck & Co. appear to have been affected by sales of Celltrion’s Remsima, a biosimilar copy of Johnson & Johnson’s Remicade. Pfizer, which markets and sells Celltrion’s Remicade biosimilar in the US and other global markets, said in its earnings report for the January-March period Wednesday that worldwide sales of its biosimilars in the quarter came to $105 million. Of this amount, global sales of Remsima reached $78 million. Remsima is Celltrion

Industry May 4, 2017

Wary of growing concerns over worsening air quality, South Korea’s internet giant Naver on Thursday introduced a new visual mapping service that tracks the movement of fine dust in Korea, Japan and China.　The new fine dust mapping service can be accessed by searching for fine dust levels on Naver via either PC or mobile device.(Naver)Previously, Naver had provided only numerical figures that showed the level of fine dust in different cities in Korea. The new feature visually displays the changes

Technology May 4, 2017

South Korean biopharma company Celltrion, whose biosimilar copy of Johnson & Johnson’s Remicade hit the US market last year, is planning to seek regulatory approval for two additional biosimilars in the country by next month.　Celltrion said Tuesday that it plans to file Truxima and Herzuma -- referencing Roche’s lymphatic cancer drug Rituxan (rituximab) and breast cancer therapy Herceptin (trastuzumab), respectively -- to the US Food and Drug Administration by June. Celltrion’s headquarters in S

Industry May 2, 2017

SMART LABELING -- A GS Supermarket employee uses a mobile manager program connected to LG CNS’ Electronic Shelf Label to digitally change the price labels for vegetables Tuesday. LG CNS has commercialized its ESL system, which displays prices on digital labels that can be altered to reflect special sales and promotions, at 100 GS Supermarket outlets nationwide. (LG CNS)

Technology May 2, 2017

South Korea’s presidential candidates may differ in their campaign pledges on defense, labor and political reform, but they appear to have one common ground -- spurring growth through the “digital economy.” The digital economy, sometimes referred to as the “internet economy,” broadly refers to the economic activity that results from billions of everyday online connections among people, businesses, devices, data and processes, according to Deloitte.This new type of economy is backed by the growin

Technology May 1, 2017

With the recent advances in artificial intelligence, Google has been working to apply a form of high-level AI computing known as deep learning to the field of medicine and health care.　　Though further developments are underway, Google said Thursday that it has successfully developed new deep learning algorithms that can detect and diagnose diabetic retinopathy, an eye disease which can lead to blindness, as well as locate breast cancer.　Lily Peng, product manager of the medical imaging team at G

Technology April 30, 2017

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has been fined 55.1 billion won ($49 million) and given a six-month suspension of insurance coverage benefits for nine products in South Korea for bribing local doctors.Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare said Thursday that it has decided to lift insurance coverage for nine variations of two Novartis drugs -- Alzheimer’s drug Exelon and bone cancer therapy Zometa -- and impose administrative fines on 33 variations of 15 drugs.The headquarters of Swiss pharm

Industry April 28, 2017