Samsung Electronics is expected to log a sharp drop in its quarterly operating profits as the company on Friday announced that its tentative third-quarter operating profits are estimated at 10.8 trillion won ($7.7 billion), a 31.73 percent decline on year. According to the South Korean chipmaker, its operating profits from the third quarter will also have declined by 23.4 percent on quarter. The downfall will mark the first quarterly dip in the company’s operating profits since the fourth

South Korean IT giant Naver will buy Poshmark, the largest social commerce marketplace in North America, for a total of $1.6 billion (2.3 trillion won), the companies said Tuesday. Naver will acquire all of Poshmark stocks at $17.9 per share in a buyout worth approximately $1.2 billion. The rest of the $1.6 billion deal includes consideration for Poshmark’s cash holdings of some $580 million. As the biggest acquisition ever for a Korean IT company, Wednesday’s announcement marked t

SEJONG -- SK Group, South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate by market capitalization, is looking to expand its contract development and manufacturing organization businesses with the completion of SK Biotek Sejong plant’s third pharmaceutical manufacturing facility. With SK Biotek’s Module 3 launch in September, the Sejong Plant’s total manufacturing capacity increased by over 50 percent to 290 cubic meters. Combined with Modules 1 and 2, the plant can now produce up t

As SK Bioscience is poised to contribute to the world’s prolonged battle against the COVID-19 pandemic with its SKYCovione vaccine, the South Korean vaccine maker has underlined the importance of global partnerships in developing the country’s first homemade COVID-19 vaccine. SK Bioscience joined hands with the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington School of Medicine to develop SKYCovione, a self-assembled nanoparticle vaccine. The development process was also

The South Korean government on Wednesday unveiled a blueprint to become a global leader in digital innovation with the goal of becoming the world's third most digitally competitive by 2027. "We will bring up our global (artificial intelligence) competitiveness to No. 3 in the world and double the data market size to 50 trillion won ($34.7 billion) or bigger," said President Yoon Suk-yeol as he chaired the eighth pangovernmental meeting on economy and people's livelihood at the Kimdaej

Samsung Biologics has scored a “Gold Sustainability Rating” from global business evaluator EcoVadis for its sustainability efforts, the South Korean contract development and manufacturing organization company said Wednesday. According to Samsung Biologics, the CDMO giant received a score of 71 out of 100, up 14 points from the silver rating it earned last year. The company was among the top 5 percent of more than 100,000 firms in 200 industries across 175 countries assessed by EcoVad

Celltrion’s Vegzelma, a bevacizumab anticancer biosimilar referencing Avastin, has been approved for sales in Japan, the South Korean biopharmaceutical company said Tuesday. According to Celltrion, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on Monday granted Vegzelma marketing approval for the treatment of multiple types of cancer including colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian cancer and cervical cancer. The latest sales authorization of Vegzelma came after the co

South Korean biotechnology company Bertis has signed a contract with the Raffles Medical Group to supply its early stage breast cancer detection product Mastocheck, the world’s first proteomics-based blood diagnosis solution. According to Bertis, the two sides on Monday signed a deal to supply Mastocheck to about 30 medical institutions operated by the Raffles Medical Group in Singapore. Bertis said they will work to make Mastocheck available at the RMG’s overseas branches in China,

KT is looking to improve its artificial intelligence competitiveness through a partnership with Canada's Vector Institute, a nonprofit firm dedicated to AI research. According to KT, the two sides signed an agreement on research, development and business cooperation at the Vector Institute in Toronto on Thursday. The signing marked the first partnership between a South Korean company and the Vector Institute. KT said the partnership will focus on three main areas in the field of AI: joint R&

SK Telecom on Sunday unveiled the country’s first commercialized veterinary image diagnostic service based on artificial intelligence technology. Named “X Caliber,” the AI solution provides medical reports when a veterinarian uploads X-ray pictures of the dog’s chest or musculoskeletal system to the service’s website. The autonomous diagnosis takes about 30 seconds, according to SK Telecom. The company highlighted the importance of quick diagnosis, saying it would u

President Yoon Suk-yeol has emphasized the importance of digital technologies in contributing to the expansion of freedom, a day after he called for collective efforts to decrease the digital gap across the world in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly. “We have to gather our wisdom so that digital technologies can contribute to expanding freedom and set up an autonomously and rationally normative system,” said Yoon during his keynote speech at the Digital Vision Forum

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and New York University have unveiled the official signage of their joint campus to mark the beginning of a new global academic partnership, KAIST announced Thursday. Under the partnership, the two universities will begin joint research in the first half of next year with a focus on artificial intelligence, convergence neuroscience, biomedical engineering, cybersecurity, next-generation wireless communication and sustainability. The schools also

South Korean researchers have discovered how early diagnosis and medication may help ease symptoms of those with autism spectrum disorder, the Institute of Basic Science said Wednesday. Autism is a type of brain development disorder found in about 2 percent of the world population, according to the IBS. Common symptoms include a lack of social communication and interaction skills as well as repetitive behaviors and unexpected reactions. The exact cause of autism and its treatment still remain u

South Korea will spend 200 billion won ($144 million) on digital integration strategy projects over the next five years to shorten the time researchers take to solve complex problem surrounding new technologies by decades, the Ministry of Science said Tuesday. According to the ministry, the government will use the financial support for projects that integrate artificial intelligence, digital twin and big data into developing diagnoses of diseases such as intractable cancer and dementia, nine ne

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency -- the UK’s drug authorization body -- has granted Celltrion sales approval for oncology biosimilar Vegzelma in the country, the South Korean company announced Monday. According to Celltrion, Vegzelma was authorized for the treatment of multiple types of cancer including metastatic breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian cancer and cervical cancer. The UK approval came a month after Vegzelma received a green light from th

South Korea will cut down the time it takes to complete the review process for national research and development projects to 4 1/2 months from the current seven-month period to secure the timeliness of certain projects, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Friday, as it announced the revised policies to enhance the country’s preliminary feasibility study for R＆D projects. According to the ministry, projects that will be subject to the new review policy will be limited to those that pass th

US President Joe Biden’s executive order on bolstering the country's biotechnology and biomanufacturing sectors with over $2 billion in spending will not dampen the outlook for the South Korean bio industry, according to industry insiders and analysts. The US-first initiative could rather serve as an opportunity for Korean companies, they said. “The US’ move appears to be another attempt to solidify the ‘made-in-America’ efforts, similar to the electric vehicle and

LG Uplus, South Korea’s third-largest telecom operator by market share, has pledged to increase the sales proportion of non-telecommunication services to 40 percent of the total by 2027 with a focus on developing platform businesses. “Now moving beyond the area of traditional telecom businesses, we are looking to open up the era of ‘U+3.0’ that creates data- and technology-based platforms and services centered around customers to discover future growth engines,” sa

The South Korean government has imposed a total of 100 billion won ($72 million) in fines against Google and Meta for illegally collecting and using personal information for customized advertisements, officials said Wednesday. The Personal Information Protection Commission under the Prime Minister's Office decided to impose fines of 69.2 billion won and 30.8 billion won against Google and Meta, respectively, after it held a plenary session earlier in the day. According to the PIPC’s inve

Naver Z, the metaverse affiliate of South Korean IT giant Naver, has joined the Tech Coalition to fight online sexual abuse and exploitation of children, the company said Wednesday. Established as a voluntary working group in 2006, the Tech Coalition is a global alliance of technology companies that have come together to better detect, report, remove and prevent online child sexual abuse. With Naver Z becoming the newest member of the alliance, there are now 28 companies including Amazon, Appl