SK Inc. has invested $350 million (421.4 billion won) in the Center for Breakthrough Medicines, a Philadelphia-based cell and gene therapy firm, to become the second largest shareholder, SK Group’s holding company said Sunday. With the investment, SK Inc. has secured a strong foothold in the US cell and gene therapies market. The transaction came nine months after the holding company acquired Yposkesi, a French developer and manufacturer of cell and gene therapy products, in March. As a

Korean gaming giant Nexon said Thursday it has decided to invest $400 million into US production company Agbo, co-founded by Anthony and Joe Russo, the directors of Marvel’s global megahits. Through the latest investment, the Tokyo-listed Nexon plans to accelerate the global expansion of its existing and new intellectual property in the film and TV sectors, while Agbo looks to further boost its influence in the global entertainment market by strengthening its production power. Valued at

CJ Bioscience, a biotechnology subsidiary of CJ CheilJedang, has been officially launched with its eyes set on becoming a global leader in the microbiome sector, the Korean food giant said Wednesday. The establishment of the biotechnology firm is part of CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun’s earlier pledge to strengthen the group’s wellness business, one of the four growth engines he had vowed to cultivate for the future. CJ Bioscience on Tuesday held an inauguration ceremony with key

South Korea’s key manufacturers, retailers and service providers on Monday vowed to prepare for a full business recovery from the prolonged pandemic crisis by initiating both technological and organizational innovation to tap into markets that had already gone through tremendous changes for last two years. “The paradigm shift that was brought by the COVID-19 crisis and challenges to overcome it lie ahead of us,” Cho Won-tae, the chairman of Hanjin Group and Korean Air CEO, sa

For Kwon Ju-hyeon, a 30-year-old freelancer living in Gyeonggi Province, the robot vacuum cleaner has become something he cannot live without after a month of using it. Kwon’s robot vacuum cleaner, approximately the size and shape of a pizza, sweeps the floor with just the push of a button on the remote control. Using sensors and drive routines, the autonomous device makes its way around the chairs, tables, couch and drawers inside the house to pick up dust and small particles on the flo

The loosening of a fixture that holds a helium tank of the Nuri rocket blocked the country’s first homegrown rocket from a successful launch, officials said Wednesday. After two months of data analysis, government officials and experts concluded that the degree of buoyancy increase during flight was not sufficiently considered when designing the fixture for Nuri’s helium tank. According to the Science Ministry and Korea Aerospace Research Institute, an unusual vibration from Nuri

GC Pharma has recently launched a new high-content multivitamin called B-max Meta B. B-max Meta B contains 30 milligrams of bisbentiamine that passes through the blood brain barrier to help the human brain’s metabolism, the company said. The product also has high amounts of vitamin B12, vitamin D, magnesium and zinc to aid people in controlling their health, it added. The new supplementary multivitamin is the latest addition to CG Pharma’s B-max series, which began rolling out in

The landscape of South Korea’s game industry has been shaken up in the past year, as newcomers took the market by storm while traditional powerhouses slipped. Krafton, developer of online multiplayer shooter PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds, and Kakao Games, maker of massively multiplayer online role-playing game Odin: Valhalla Rising, saw their sales soar on-year, as the two games gained popularity around the world. Meanwhile, the country’s big three game makers -- Nexon, NCSoft and N

The commercial district surrounding Apgujeong Station -- one of South Korea’s richest neighborhoods -- recorded a daily sales average of 13.6 billion won ($11.4 million), the highest in the country, SK Telecom said Thursday. Using its big data analysis platform Geovision, SK Telecom listed the top 100 commercial districts nationwide. Each area’s sales figures were estimated based on credit card transactions, floating population and level of business concentration. The daily float

Health authorities started the last stage of testing for SK Bioscience’s coronavirus vaccine GBP510 this week, the National Institute of Health said Tuesday. As a home-grown COVID-19 vaccine closest to becoming the country’s first vaccine to be authorized, GBP510 is currently in the third and last phase of its clinical trial. “The last and most important step for the commercialization of the first Korea-made COVID-19 vaccine has begun,” said Kwon Jun-wook, director of

Concerns reignited among iPhone 13 users subscribed to telecoms service provider LG Uplus on Thursday as they were still unable to receive calls or had calls disconnected despite the latest but a belated software update. Angry customers blamed Apple on online communities for posting a notice about its latest software update -- the iOS 15.2 -- more than a month after they demanded fixing the problem. Both the manufacturer and the mobile carrier have also been silent over the defects for over a m

Baedal Minjok, also known as Baemin, began mobilizing robots for a door-to-door food delivery service, South Korea’s largest food delivery app said Wednesday. Named “Delidrive,” Baemin’s autonomous driving robot is the first of its kind in the world, according to the app operator Woowa Brothers. The robot delivery service is currently only available in the apartment complex of Alleyway Gwanggyo near Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. The company said Delidrive can freely move

Dunamu, the operator of Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, aims to become a global platform for all types of exchanges, its chief said Tuesday. “In the future, Dunamu will establish a trading channel for all digital assets to discover new opportunities such as metaverses and non-fungible tokens,” said Dunamu CEO Lee Sirgoo in an online press conference held on its recently-launched metaverse platform 2ndblock. “Taking a step further from being a platform f

Samsung Biologics will begin manufacturing AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 antibody combination Evusheld by expanding their earlier deal, officials said Tuesday. The newly expanded deal is estimated at $380 million, up about $50 million from the initial contract of the two pharmaceutical giants’ long-term strategic partnership signed in September 2020. Evusheld, formerly known as AZD7442, is a combination of two long-acting antibodies, tixagevimab and cilgavimab. It has the effect of prev

Global K-pop stars BTS and Netflix hit series Squid Game were among the most popular hashtags across the world on Instagram this year, Instagram Korea said Tuesday. “Popular contents and accounts on Instagram in 2021 reflected the most notable social and cultural phenomena of this year, such as the dance craze, K-content syndrome, and the Tokyo Olympics,“ Meta Korea’s CEO Jung Ki-hyun said in an online press conference. “Instagram will continue to allow the users to fr

An increasing number of public officials are leaving to join the cryptocurrency industry almost without restriction, Rep. Roh Woong-rae of the ruling Democratic Party said Saturday, urging tighter rules on their post-public service employment. According to data compiled by the lawmaker, a Grade 5 official at the Financial Service Commission, the nation’s top financial regulator, recently quit to move to Bithumb, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges here. Although the official fac

South Korean megahit “Squid Game” ranked as the No. 9 most-searched keyword by worldwide users on Google this year, Google Korea said Thursday. No. 1 on the list of most searched terms was “Australia vs. India,” referring to cricket matches between the two countries. “India vs. England” took second, followed by “IPL,” which stands for the Indian Premier League. Among the TV shows searched on Google worldwide, the Korean drama series was the mos

Kyobo Life Insurance affiliates and KakaoBank signed a memorandum of understanding on data cooperation and financial platform projects, officials said Thursday. KakaoBank, South Korea’s biggest internet-only bank by user base, said it will work with Kyobo Book Centre, the country’s largest bookstore by sales, to develop and upgrade an alternative credit rating model. To do that, the lender plans to research and analyze nonfinancial data such as the history of book purchases by Kyob

In times of digital transformation, bigger firms have the tools, technology and personnel for digital transformation, but smaller companies often lack the necessary resources. This is where the Seoul Business Agency steps in to support small- to medium-sized companies in the capital. "Conglomerates or IT companies are undergoing digital transformation and making business opportunities out of it. SMEs are aware of the shift, but they are very busy with their daily workload," said Kim H

Led by major biopharmaceutical companies in Celltrion and Samsung Biologics, South Korea is poised to make a bigger impact on the global market, according to German science and technology group Merck. “Executives at Merck headquarters think the Korean government’s vision to turn the country into a global vaccine hub by 2025 is impressive. There were suggestions to actively cooperate with the Korean government and support its strategic efforts to foster the bio industry,” said