The novel coronavirus is likely to evolve into a flu-like respiratory virus by the end of 2023, or in 2024, once the COVID-19 pandemic reaches its endemic phase, eventually requiring people to get vaccinated year after year, a senior leader at Moderna said. “During the endemic period, the (COVID-19) vaccine will become available just like the influenza vaccine. You will be able to go online to a health center, do your pre-booking and pay for the vaccine exactly as you would for a flu vacci

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Samsung Biologics’ top official on Wednesday stressed the importance of contract development and manufacturing organization companies’ efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and how the South Korean CDMO giant is working toward achieving environmental friendliness. “CDMOs play a huge part because we provide the manufacturing and logistics for a lot of (biopharmaceutical) companies and we have to continue to innovate together,” said James Choi, ex

FRANKFURT, Germany -- The Convention on Pharmaceutical Ingredients (CPhI) Worldwide connected thousands within its community from Tuesday to Thursday in Frankfurt, Germany. Included on this global stage were 62 South Korean pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, tripling the country’s presence from the event last year. Based on the number of exhibitors by country, Korea ranked ninth of the 72 countries. Korea was also the only country that had two pavilions for exhibiting each nat

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Yposkesi, SK Pharmteco’s French contract development and manufacturing organization specialized in cell and gene therapy, is expecting to complete the construction of its new plant by the end of the first quarter next year, the CDMO’s CEO said Tuesday. “After (the completion of the plant), we will qualify this manufacturing unit and we expect to get the authorization from the French authorities to operate the plant under the (Good Manufacturing Practice) b

As biopharmaceutical companies across the globe are undergoing revolutionary changes in bioprocessing, Merck Life Science appears committed to helping Korean companies stay ahead of the game. Meeta Gulyani, head of strategy, business development and sustainability at Merck Life Science, told The Korea Herald last week that the factory of the future features connected, automated and digitized manufacturing. “All of this is to say that we are going to try to increase the speed of manufacturi

FRANKFURT -- Celltrion, a South Korean pharmaceutical giant, is seeking to expand partnerships at this year’s Convention on Pharmaceutical Ingredients Worldwide, the company said Tuesday. Taking place in major European cities each year, CPhI is one of the largest global pharma industry events in the world that gathers household names and experts. The German city of Frankfurt is holding this year’s event from Tuesday to Thursday. According to Celltrion, the drug maker has set up an in

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Samsung Biologics, a leading South Korean contract development and manufacturing organization, has highlighted its speed in expanding production capacity and bringing clients’ drug products to the market as the company’s competitive edge in the global CDMO industry. “The most prominent differentiator is our speed to the market. We allow our customers to bring their products faster to the market,” said Kevin Sharp, Samsung Biologics’ vice presid

Strong intellectual property protection is a key factor for pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms to become global household names, according to a high-ranking official at the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations. “Because our industry is one of the most highly regulated industries, so what’s necessary in order to excel in that situation is, of course, the ability to innovate first and foremost. But that is only allowed through very strong intel

FRANKFURT -- Samsung Biologics, the world’s largest contract manufacturing and development organization by production capacity, is looking to attract global customers at this year’s Convention on Pharmaceutical Ingredients Worldwide, officials said Monday. CPhI is one of the biggest international pharma industry events that draws leading businesses and professionals from across the globe. Taking place in major European cities each year, this year’s event is held in Frankfurt, G

Samsung Electronics' operating profits dropped by more than 30 percent on year, despite record sales, amid the weakening business environment in the semiconductor sector. According to Samsung Electronics on Thursday, the company logged 76.78 trillion won ($54 billion) in sales and 10.85 trillion won in operating profits in the third quarter. The company’s device solutions unit, which is in charge of Samsung’s chip businesses, saw its operating profits almost halve to 5.12 trillion wo

South Korean drug maker Boryung has acquired the selling rights of Alimta, a non-small cell lung cancer treatment developed by US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, for the local market. According to Boryung on Tuesday, the acquisition agreement also included the copyright and licensing rights of Alimta in the country. First introduced in Korea in 2006, Alimta was the first drug to significantly reduce the anti-cancer drug’s adverse effects and toxicity while improving the survival rate of

South Korean electronics giants are bracing for uncertainties across the board, with some leading exporters mapping out belt-tightening plans to address the situation that some have described as grave as the 2008 global financial crisis. Memory chip supplier SK hynix is one of the companies hit hardest by slowing consumer demand and the US-China tech arms race. The memory chip downcycle follows a pileup of order backlogs, and uncertainties are growing in its Chinese operations due to semiconduct

The South Korean government on Tuesday kicked off the first World Bio Summit, a joint event with the World Health Organization to gather leaders of the vaccine and biotechnology industry to discuss innovations and ways to strengthen global health security. President Yoon Suk-yeol highlighted the importance of solidary and cooperation that go beyond the borders to prepare for humanity’s common adversity of new infectious diseases and pandemics. “Global society should work together

Kim Beom-su, founder of South Korean online platform behemoth Kakao, said Monday that he will consider providing across-the-board compensation for users who suffered damages due to the company’s unprecedented service malfunction caused by a fire at an SK C&C data center on Oct. 15. "We are currently accepting damage reports from the users, so it is difficult to specifically tell the type and size of our compensation. We are reviewing all measures to help (users) recover,”

The South Korean government will set up a digital crisis management headquarters to launch an all-year-round system that inspects and supervises the country’s digital infrastructure and services, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Friday. The government’s plan came in the wake of Kakao’s server outage caused by a fire at SK C&C’s data center building, which led to a breakdown of the country’s most popular messaging app KakaoTalk for over 10 hours on Oct. 15. M

A team of researchers have developed the world’s first gripper that can work like an elephant’s trunk, the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials said Thursday. Inspired by how an elephant picks up smaller objects by folding the end of the trunk and grabs bigger objects by inhaling air, the newly-developed gripper can pick up things by either gripping or adsorbing them. The researchers put together a flexible structure consisting of a wire that can transform its shape and a flexi

Kakao Corp. and SK C&C on Tuesday voiced subtle differences over how the weekend server outage went down at the SK facility -- which houses Kakao’s data center -- foreshadowing possibilities of future legal disputes over damage compensation. According to each company’s officials, SK C&C claimed that only some of the electricity to the data room containing Kakao’s servers were cut off by the fire, while Kakao insisted that a majority of its servers at SK C&C’s

The aftermath of Kakao’s sudden shutdown continued Monday, as South Korea’s largest messenger app operator claimed its service failures due to a fire at SK C&C’s data center over the weekend would have limited financial impacts, while analysts predicted Kakao would suffer up to 22 billion won ($15.3 million) in sales loss in the fourth quarter. Kakao has set up an emergency committee, headed by its co-CEO Hong Eun-taek, to investigate the cause of the disastrous shutdown, c

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong on Tuesday visited Samsung Biologics, a contract manufacturing and development organization under the Samsung empire, in Songdo, west of Seoul, vowing to invest 7.5 trillion won ($5.2 billion) through 2032 to solidify the biotechnology unit's leading position in the worldwide CDMO industry.  The investment is about building four more biomanufacturing plants at the second Biocampus, the company said, adding that it has begun the partial operati

South Korea’s science experts have called for nationwide efforts to set up a national science hub in order to gather the country’s scientific talents and research efforts. According to the Science Dreamland, an incorporated association, over 100 figures from the science and technology sector, local governments and companies gathered to share thoughts on how to successfully push for building a national science hub at the National Assembly Members Office on Friday. The association refe