GC Pharma’s Hunter syndrome treatment Hunterase has been approved by the Chinese drug authority, the company said Wednesday. Hunterase is indicated for long-term treatment for Hunter syndrome, and is the first of its kind to be officially approved for use by China’s National Medical Products Administration. CANBridge Pharmaceuticals is responsible for the distribution of Hunterase in China, and is expected to gradually widen the scope to Taiwan, Hong Kong and adjacent regions. Hu

The South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Institute for Mathematical Sciences are planning to conduct computational research to determine the scope of a potential COVID-19 spike if Koreans go ahead with their typical cross-country movements during the Chuseok holidays at the end of September. “We are in the process of devising how to model the calculations. We anticipate to have the results of this research by Sept. 23,” a Science Ministry official told The Korea

South Korea‘s Fair Trade Commission on Sunday imposed a fine of over 1 billion won ($842,000) on Naver for predatory real estate practices. According to the antitrust government agency, Naver prevented real estate information businesses that it had ties with from working with Kakao. Naver has violated the Fair Trade Act by progressively extending the scope of its exclusivity contracts with real estate businesses and actively blocking Kakao from entering the market, the FTC said. As a

Biologics experts and industry officials will discuss accessibility of COVID-19 vaccines at the virtual Global Bio Conference 2020 starting Monday. According to the hosting Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, this year’s GBC is the sixth annual event and the first to open online. The Ministry anticipates participation from some 3,000 audience for the live broadcasts to be delivered by 61 speakers from 18 nations over three days. The number of speakers and partaking countries halved from

WiniaDimchae on Thursday launched a new electronic rice cooker called DimchaeCook White Rice Sugar Reduction 50 Retro that can cut down the glucose level in white rice by 51 percent. The percentage is based on plain white rice, but whatever grain that goes in to this rice cooker comes out in a form that all weight-watchers will love, according to WiniaDimchae. WiniaDimchae launched a similar cooker called DimchaeCook White Rice Sugar Reduction 30 in November 2019, that could reduce the glucose

Syntekabio said Thursday that its COVID-19 combination treatment candidates have displayed therapeutic effects twice as strong as remdesivir in animal tests. These drug candidates have been on the market for over 20 years for other indications. If further clinical tests confirm their therapeutic effects for COVID-19, it would be a matter of time to reposition them, the South Korean bio firm said. Syntekabio said it had selected two drug materials as viable COVID-19 treatment candidates throug

Transparent film covering surfaces in public areas such as elevator buttons have become a common sight in South Korea throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Containing ionized copper, these films assert to be antimicrobial and effective at deflecting fomite transmission of SARS CoV-2 virus. The films have become nearly imperative for people as they go about their lives pressing elevator buttons, pushing grocery shopping carts or tapping automated kiosks at take-out restaurants. The Seoul Housing &a

Chong Kun Dang’s anticoagulant and acute pancreatitis treatment Nafabeltan (nafamostat) is to undergo a clinical phase two trial in Russia repositioned as a potential COVID-19 treatment, CKD said Tuesday. Nafabeltan is a white substance that has to be dissolved into an injectable solution for administration. According to CKD, Russia’s Drug Ministry approved of its clinical phase two trial design targeting some 100 seriously afflicted COVID-19 pneumonic patients there. The patients

GI Innovation is a fusion protein novel drug discovery firm that has made two license-out deals that are worth a combined $1.99 billion, just three years since its foundation. This feat for a small biotech comprising 50 employees has pinned GI Innovation as the next big catch in the health care sector after SK Biopharmaceuticals’ record-breaking initial public offering in June, which was 323 times oversubscribed. GI Innovation’s stock market listing on Kosdaq was previously antici

Hardened heels, or plantar callus, can turn out to be a fungal infection known as athlete’s foot. Athlete’s foot in the heels is difficult to distinguish from callus, as it does not itch. To the eye, it may appear like any ordinary hardened heel. Dong-A Pharmaceutical said Thursday it released over-the-counter drug Terbinew Gel in time for summer, when such conditions tend to spike. Terbinew Gel is a percolative cream that forms a film on the applied skin surface. By creating thi

Not all that is big is good -- and this is especially true of tablets that have to be swallowed to deliver medicine. Chong Kun Dang’s newly launched Itun Q Plus is everything the original Itun Q was -- but it’s been enhanced through downsizing. Itun Q is an over-the-counter herbal medicine for periodontal discomfort that helps keep teeth sturdy and fights gum inflammation. Its active ingredient is titrated extract of the unsaponifiable fraction of corn. According to Chong Kun Da

Celltrion will carry out another clinical phase 1 trial of its COVID-19 antibody treatment CT-P59 in South Korea, this time targeting confirmed patients showing mild symptoms, the company said Wednesday. A day ahead of this announcement, the company’s Senior Managing Director Kwon Ki-sung said at the Bio Incheon Global Conference held in Songdo, Incheon, that the previously ongoing clinical phase 1 trial of CT-P59 in healthy people has wrapped up with confirmation of the drug’s safe

진행자: 임정요, Kevin Lee Selzer 1. Are 90-second movies capturing subway audiences? 요약: 8월 24일~9월 18일 기간 동안 서울 지하철 내 90초 영화 상영 페스티벌 열려 [1] People riding subways will want to keep a close eye on the destination information screens on subway trains and at stations for the next few weeks: The Seoul Metro International Subway Film Festival kicked off Monday, bringing short films to commuters through Sept. 18. *keep a close eye on: 주시하다 *kick off: 시작하다 [2] The official slogan for this year’

SK C&C and Gachon University Gil Hospital in Incheon will jointly develop an artificial intelligence service that will help medical professionals discover what causes a metabolic disease, SK C&C said Tuesday. This AI service deals in the very first step of the winding process of novel drug discovery. It attempts to search for, and identify, the genetic idiosyncrasy or protein anomaly that triggers illness. After a cause is pinpointed, scientists can proceed to discover novel drug ca

  　LG Display said Tuesday its organic light-emitting diode TV panels have earned the Accurate Picture Quality certification from UK-based Intertek. 　Intertek is a global test and certification body for OLED panels. 　“With the spread of contactless culture, we are seeing an increased TV viewership for movies, performances and arts. The importance of accurate expression on displays, therefore, is becoming ever more emphasized,” said Oh Chang-ho, executive vice president of LG D

Singapore-based antibody discovery firm Hummingbird Bioscience is drawing attention from South Korean investors for its computational systems biology-driven drug candidate discovery technology. “We have secured more than $65 million in investments for our company (and) are seeing increasing interest from South Korea-based venture and asset firms,” Hummingbird Bioscience CEO Piers Ingram said in an email interview with The Korea Herald. The growing list of South Korean investors in

Nano-x, a medical imaging company in which SK Telecom is the second-biggest shareholder, has made an initial public offering on the US’ Nasdaq, SKT said Sunday. SKT preemptively invested a total of $23 million in Nano-x, first in June 2019 and second in June 2020, securing over 2.6 million shares in the company. As the second-biggest stakeholder to Nano-x after the company’s founders, SKT said it is actively participating in the management and global business expansion of Nano-x.

Researchers from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed a big data and artificial intelligence-powered software called Hi-COVIDNet to monitor incoming COVID-19 cases from overseas. KAIST said Wednesday that the Hi-COVIDNet predicts the volume of COVID-19 patients’ influx two weeks in advance, based on big data information of foreign nations’ confirmed patient numbers and deaths, the daily number of flights from those nations to Korea and the number of pass

Celltrion and Genexine stocks were upbeat Wednesday, on the back of Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology’s announcement the day before that Korean scientists have succeeded in deriving meaningful results from COVID-19 treatment and vaccine candidates’ animal tests. Celltrion shares started 1.48 percent higher than the previous day at 308,500 won ($260) while Genexine’s started 4.99 percent higher at 126,200 won. KRIBB said Tuesday that in primates modele

GC LabCell, a cell therapy specialist, said Tuesday that it has confirmed Natural Killer cells’ therapeutic effects against the SARS CoV-2 virus. NK cell therapy is an innovative treatment. There are no commercialization-approved NK cell therapies worldwide as of yet, meaning it is uncertain how long the research for NK cell therapy for COVID-19 could take. GCLC’s research is in the laboratory stage and will need to go through preclinical animal trials and three stages of human tr