Hanmi Pharmaceutical has scored its first approval from the US Food and Drug Administration with its novel biomedicine Rolontis. Rolontis -- Hanmi Pharmaceutical's treatment for neutropenia, a disease that occurs when a specific type of white blood cells is lacking so that the body cannot fight infections, especially those caused by bacteria -- was given the FDA’s approval on Friday, according to the Korean firm’s US partner Spectrum Pharmaceuticals’ announcement. Neutropenia's

Grand plans laid out by Seoul and Busan show how South Korea will play a major role as Asia's influence grows, according to futurist Richard Yonck. “One of the things that are very apparent to me is that a huge amount of the future is going to be happening through Asia,” Yonck, founder of Intelligent Future Consulting, told The Korea Herald in Seoul on Sept. 5. Mentioning the Seoul Vision 2030 plan and the government efforts to host the 2030 World Expo in Busan, the futurist said t

HLB’s precision cancer drug Rivoceranib has demonstrated the world’s longest median overall survival, or mOS, in phase 3 clinical trials of liver cancer, the South Korean biopharmaceutical company said Thursday. According to HLB, Rivoceranib’s mOS recorded 22.1 months to mark the first drug in the world to break the 20-month barrier against liver cancer. The company earlier released the abstract of phase 3 concomitant clinical trials of Rivoceranib and anticancer drug Camreli

SK Bioscience has completed the application for an emergency use listing of SKYCovione -- South Korea’s first homemade COVID-19 vaccine -- with the World Health Organization, the local vaccine developer said Thursday. The WHO’s emergency use listing is the global health body’s procedure for reviewing vaccines, therapeutics and in vitro diagnosis with the goal of expediting the availability of such products to people in case of a public health emergency. As the WHO’s asse

It has been almost 1,000 days since the first case of COVID-19 was reported from Wuhan, China, at the end of December 2019. The unprecedented pandemic swept the world. Humanity fought back fiercely. The world now appears to have an upper hand over the novel coronavirus as borders are crossed and masks are taken off. However, a global expert on immune therapies and vaccines says the COVID-19 pandemic is not done yet. “Everyone wishes (the pandemic) would go away but it really hasn’t

Hyundai Motor Group and KT have decided to exchange shares worth about 750 billion won ($541 million) to strengthen their partnership in the future mobility sector, officials said Wednesday. According to the two companies, Hyundai Motor Group will acquire 7.7 percent of KT’s treasury stock while KT will acquire 1.04 percent of Hyundai Motor Group’s treasury stock and 1.46 percent of Hyundai Mobis’ shares. The two companies decided to join hands in upgrading future mobility te

SK Broadband has decided to invest $4 million (5.5 billion won) in US collaboration platform developer Swit as the company seeks to boost its competitiveness in the business-to-business sector, the South Korean internet service provider said Wednesday. On top of the investment, SK Broadband said the company will become the sole distributor of Swit in the domestic market while pushing for collaboration businesses including new products that will integrate its message and fax services with Swit&r

A committee of experts said Tuesday that the algorithm of Kakao Mobility’s taxi-hailing application -- Kakao T -- does not favor its affiliated cabs known as Kakao T Blue in the process of matching passengers with taxi drivers. The experts’ analysis came amid the Fair Trade Commission’s ongoing case against Kakao Mobility over allegations that the ride-calling app operator intentionally assigned passengers to its affiliated cabs first. Denying the allegations, the company dis

Kakao Entertainment -- a content subsidiary of South Korean IT giant Kakao -- has launched Tapas Entertainment to accelerate the expansion of its content businesses in North America, the company said Monday. Tapas Entertainment was established after a merger between Tapas Media, the first webtoon platform in North America, and Radish Media, a leading US web novel company, was completed on Aug. 5, according to Kakao Entertainment. Kakao Entertainment acquired the two companies in May last year

Coway is showcasing its latest lineup of air and water purifiers at Europe’s largest home appliances tech show IFA 2022, the South Korean company said Friday. Coway’s on-display products at the event’s exhibition booth in Berlin include 14 air purifiers and eight water purifiers with the newest air purifiers Coway Airmega taking the spotlight. “The Coway Airmega range is consistently recognized as the best-in-class, earning status as an Amazon USA top air purifier brand

A group of researchers at Yonsei University have found that even if the concentration level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is reduced to that of the pre-industrial era, it will be difficult to restore the climate’s condition to its original state. According to Yonsei University on Friday, an in-house research team led by atmospheric sciences professor An Soon-il developed the world’s first climate recovery map, which is designed to illustrate possible improvements in global s

Naver Z, the South Korean IT giant’s subsidiary that runs the Zepeto metaverse platform, has joined hands with Thailand’s largest telecommunication services provider to expand the virtual world’s ecosystem in the Southeast Asian nation, Naver said Thursday. Naver Z and True Corp. signed a memorandum of understanding for a strategic partnership between the two firms at True’s Bangkok office on Wednesday. “Through this partnership, we will look to lead Thailand into

South Korea will begin embedded subscriber identity module, known as eSIM, services from Thursday, allowing Koreans to have two different numbers in one mobile device, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Wednesday. The eSIM service, an upgrade from the universal subscriber identity module, is based on downloading the electronic profile of subscribers to each device. Therefore, it does not require a physical USIM card change. The ministry said Koreans can now choose between the two types of SI

HIT2, a recently-launched massively multiplayer online role playing game developed by South Korean game developer Nexon, is looking to change the nature of how MMORPGs are played by offering players chances to revise the playing rules. According to Nexon, HIT2 players get to vote on the rules of their game server under the name of “Altar of the Coordinator” each week. Players can obtain their voting rights by completing simple quests in game. The players can also opt to sell their v

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won recently discussed metaverse cooperation with Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon in bidding efforts to host the World Expo 2030 in Busan, according to industry sources Tuesday. Chey visited Naver’s recently-built headquarters 1784 in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, to meet the IT giant’s leader last month. The exact date of his visit was undisclosed as the visit and the meeting took unexpectedly, SK and Naver officials said. Chey who doubles as chairman of the Korea

Researchers have developed the world’s first electroceutical technology that can be used to treat the Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology said Tuesday. CMT disease is a group of inherited disorders that cause nerve damage. Its common symptoms are weakness in the legs and feet, loss of muscle bulk and curled toes. Although CMT is one of the most commonly inherited neurological disorders -- found in about one in 3,000 people -- there are no a

Kim Dong-kwan, the eldest son of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn, has been tentatively promoted to the group’s vice chairman as he is expected to take on a bigger role in the group’s management, Hanwha Group said Monday. The decision came about a year after the 38-year-old became the CEO of Hanwha Solutions, the group’s company with business areas in multinational energy services, petrochemical and real estate in September 2021. According to the announcement, Kim has a

Data from market intelligence firm FnGuide showed Monday that 885 officials at companies listed on the Korean stock market were paid 500 million won ($370,000) or higher in the first half of this year, up 13.3 percent from 781 people in the same period last year. According to FnGuide’s data, the total amount of the officials’ remuneration logged 1.23 trillion won, a 5.2 percent increase on year. About 57.1 percent of the officials were paid between 500 million won and 1 billion won

Lotte Group, South Korea’s fifth largest conglomerate, has decided to donate 14 billion won ($10.4 million) to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology for various research and development efforts, officials said Monday. The announcement came about half a year after Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin met KAIST President Lee Kwang-hyung at the university in Daejeon, South Chungcheong Province, in February. According to the officials, Lotte Group’s 10 subsidiaries inc

Amid the importance of renewable electricity highlighted in global supply chains, 28.8 percent of large South Korean manufacturers are facing pressure from global buyers to use renewable energy in the production process, a survey from the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry showed Sunday. Regarding the requested timeline by the global buyers, the survey showed that 33.3 percent of South Korean manufacturers were asked to use renewable energy by 2025 while 9.5 percent of foreign companies de