A novel degenerative disc treatment developed by South Korean pharmaceutical firm Yuhan Corp., identified as YH14618, is nearing the clinical trial phase in the US.Yuhan Corp. on Friday said it had received the remaining $550,000 of the $650,000 down payment from Spine Biopharma, the US company to which Yuhan licensed out YH14618 in July 2018.Spine Biopharma plans to apply to the US Food and Drug Administration before the end of this year for permission to conduct clinical trials of YH14618. Bac

A record-scale fire broke out in the eastern coastal region of Gangwon Province on Thursday evening, affecting Goseong, Sokcho, Gangneung, Donghae and Inje. The main conflagration was extinguished by Friday morning, but flames were reportedly still blazing in limited areas as of 10:30 a.m.(Yonhap)(Yonhap)(Yonhap)(Yonhap)(Yonhap)The fire reportedly started from a power switch in Goseong operated by the Korea Electric Power Corporation. Gusts of wind blowing at 30 meters per second quickly carried

Celebrating 10 years of operations here, Epic Games Korea announced Wednesday it will be launching its online game distribution channel, Epic Games Store, here.The store is the latest project of the game company whose main business is the massively popular “Fortnite” and game development suite Unreal Engine. While Epic Games Store launched globally at the end of last year, the opening was stalled for Korea due to game ratings regulations. Every legally distributed game in Korea has to have its u

The South Korean biohealth industry’s monthly exports surpassed $800 million in March, a 13 percent growth from a year earlier, mainly due to increased shipments to the US and China. Trade Ministry data released Tuesday revealed that Korea exported $111.7 million worth of biohealth products to the US in March, $80 million to China, $60.3 milion to ASEAN nations and $145.9 million to European countries.Pharmaceuticals exports marked $401 million, up 17 percent from a month earlier and marking the

Kolon Life Science on Monday suspended the distribution and sales of Invossa, its main cash cow drug, following a report that an ingredient in the drug has been mislabeled since 2003.KLS shares closed at 52,700 won ($46) on this day, a 29.92 percent tumble from the previous day.　The report was authored by Kolon Group’s US biopharma unit Kolon TissueGene, which said that a Short Tandem Repeat analysis revealed the osteoarthritis treatment drug was made based on a cell different than that specifie

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are going head to head in the fight for 5G smartphone market dominance in South Korea. Not long after Samsung revealed plans to begin sales of the world’s first 5G-compatible Galaxy S10 as of April 5, LG Electronics said Sunday that it would begin sales of its first 5G smartphone, the LG V50 ThinQ, at a competitive price of 1.2 million won ($1,050) starting April 19. The LG V50 ThinQ costs 200,000 won less than the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G. (LG Electronics)Mar

SK Holdings announced Thursday that it will invest 170 billion won ($150 million) to Blue Racer Midstream, a US natural gas gathering and processing business. In 2017, SK Holdings made a $1 billion investment in Eureka Midstream Holdings, another US gas company.Both Blue Racer Midstream and Eureka Midstream Holdings have offices in Pennsylvania and Ohio in the Marcellus-Utica Basin, which is the largest natural gas reserve in North America.Major pipeline constructions began in the region last ye

Korean conglomerates are diving in to the field of biotechnology one after another, but they have no long-term prospects if biosimilars are the only area they invest in, says Cho Joong-myung, a 71-year-old bio-venture founder who has dedicated his life to the research and development of novel drugs.Cho served as senior vice president and director of research and development at Biotech Research Institute of LG Life Science (then LG Chemical) from 1984 to 2000. The lab started with only a handful

The Libyan government signed on with South Korea’ Daewoo Engineering & Construction to build a power plant that will alleviate electricity woes in the country, Daewoo E&C said Tuesday.The company signed a memorandum of understanding to build Western Mountain Power Plant with the General Electricity Company of Libya on March 20. The Western Mountain Power Plant is a 900MW-capacity generator located in Al Hawamind, some 200 kilometers southwest from Libya’s capital city of Tripoli.  Daewoo E&C CEO

Celltrion CEO Seo Jeong-jin said at a shareholders meeting Tuesday that his company could reach 30 trillion won ($26.5 billion) in sales as soon as 2027. For 2020, he suggested a figure of 5 trillion won.Celltrion has yet to cross the threshold of 1 trillion won, although the company set its own best mark in 2018 with 982.1 billion won in sales profit, an increase of 33 billion won from the year before. Seo, while attending a business trip in Japan, connected via phone to speak to shareholders a

The frameworks for Haeundae LCT The Sharp, a major urban development project involving two 85-story residential towers, and a 101-story tower overlooking Busan’s Haeundae Beach, have been completed, Posco Engineering & Construction said Monday. This marked the end to a tortuous 1,272 days since the buildings’ groundbreaking in October 2013. Construction for LCT sailed through foul winds between 2015 and 2017 due to accusations of illicit deals involving government-business collusion during impea

SONGDO -- Samsung Biologics President and CEO Kim Tae-han on Friday reiterated the legality of the firm’s accounting practices at an annual shareholders meeting held in Songdo, Gyeonggi Province.“We deeply regret the supervision results of the Financial Services Commission. We believe our accounting was done within all legal boundaries. We apologize for any concerns the investigations have caused our shareholders,” Kim said.“Samsung Biologics will make its best efforts to prevent this issue from

History is closer to people’s lives than in the musty pages of old books. In the ultra-modern metropolis of Seoul, there is a place where a step into the lower ground of a high-rise office building can pull one into the city’s past, dating back to the 16th century. It is Gongpyeong Historic Site Museum, a 3,817-square-meter space in the underground floor of Centropolis office building in Gongpyeong-dong, central Seoul -- the biggest historic site unearthed in Seoul to date.  (Park Hyun-koo/The K

SK Biopharmaceuticals announced on Thursday that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved Sunosi, a novel drug that aims to improve wakefulness in adult patients with excessive daytime sleepiness.The drug was developed by Irish firm Jazz Pharmaceuticals using solriamfetol, a compound discovered by the South Korean firm. Sunosi can alleviate narcolepsy, the inability to control the sleep-wake cycle, or obstructive sleep apnea, in which people suffer pauses in breathing, disturbing their s

진행자: 임정요, Kevin Lee Selzer1. Human rights body says punishing women for abortion unconstitutional기사요약: 지난 15일 국가인권위원회는 헌법재판소에 "낙태한 여성을 처벌하는 건 여성의 자기결정권 등을 침해하는 것임을 확인한다"는 내용의 의견서를 제출했다. 나아가 인권위는 "민주국가에서 임신을 국가가 강제할 수 없듯이, 임신을 하지 않을 권리도 국가가 보장해야 한다"고 주장했다.아이튠즈(아이폰): https://itunes.apple.com/kr/podcast/koliaheleoldeu-paskaeseuteu/id686406253?mt=2팟빵 (안드로이드): http://www.podbbang.com/ch/6638[1] The National Human Rights Commission of Korea has delivered its opinion to the Constitutional Court that cr

SillaJen said Wednesday it will utilize 110 billion won ($97.3 million) worth convertible bonds that it plans to issue for testing the efficacy of its breakthrough oncolytic virus Pexa-Vec for various types of cancer, as well as develop another pipeline. The South Korean firm also seeks to establish a new research and development center in the capital region, for which it plans to hire more researchers. (Image captured from SillaJen website)A day earlier, SillaJen made a public disclosure that i

The Seoul branch of the Korea Pharmaceutical Distribution Association intends to exert pressure on global pharma firms operating here to cooperate regarding refunds and logistics costs for returning unsold drugs that are still usable elsewhere, news reports said Tuesday.In an informal gathering with the media after a meeting of the organization’s board of directors, Park Ho-young, chairman of the association’s Seoul branch, reportedly expressed dissatisfaction with the refusal of some global dru

Korea Game Society on Friday will introduce a functional game that can help patients with diabetes better manage their dietary pattern.An Android diabetes self-management application “Roly Poly 160” is set to be presented at a seminar, to be held at Contents Korea Lab in Jung-gu, Seoul.The game incorporates elements such as quizzes, ranking system and in-game avatars, to existing educational materials. By doing so, the app aims to engage patients with diabetes to familiarize themselves with bene

South Korean pharmaceutical company Dong-A ST’s diabetes treatment Suganon will launch in India on April 1. The drug will sell under a localized new name, Valera, which in Latin means “strong.” A change of name is common for drugs when they launch overseas where original names may have already been taken by other legal entities. Suganon, or Valera, is a novel drug developed by Dong-A ST. India is the first overseas nation where the drug will be launched. Valera (Dong-A ST)Dong-A ST had licensed

Samsung Bioepis’ breast cancer treatment biosimilar Samfenet, known as Ontruzant outside of Korea, won a patent invalidation suit against the original Roche drug Herceptin (trastuzumab), according to industry sources Monday.Korea’s Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board on Thursday last week accepted Samsung Bioepis’ claim that Roche’s patent for “Protein Purification by Ion-Exchange Chromatography” lacks patentability. The patent had been registered with the IPTAB in 2011 and was to expir