Samsung Bioepis’ breast cancer treatment Ontruzant (trastuzumab) was launched in the US via local partner Merck, Thursday. Ontruzant references Roche’s blockbuster original Herceptin, which recorded annual global revenue of approximately 7.2 trillion won ($5.8 billion) in 2019. The US accounts for about 45 percent of Herceptin sales. Samsung Bioepis strategizes to sell Ontruzant at a 15 percent more affordable rate than Herceptin, as well as to offer doses of 150 milligrams and 4

China’s telecommuting market is anticipated to double in size this year due to the spread of COVID-19, opening new possibilities for Korean tech firms, the Korea International Trade Association’s Beijing office said Wednesday through a report. The Chinese telecommuting market is expected to reach 44.9 billion yuan ($6.3 billion) in 2020, about double that of 2019’s estimated 22.9 billion yuan and nearly four times 2018’s 11.7 billion yuan. This is due to the increased

The consumer market in Korea is experiencing a hiked interest for products that support deep sleeping, simultaneously with the increased sense of social unrest amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to Korea Ginseng Corp. on Monday, its health supplement pill Alpha Project Sleep Support’s revenue in March increased 32 percent compared to the month before. “It appears that the prolonged COVID-19 situation is disrupting sleep for many,” said Korea Ginseng Corp. “Whil

LG Display said Monday that its transparent organic light-emitting diode screen will debut through MBC broadcasting station’s general election ballot counting show slated for Wednesday. A transparent OLED is a next generation see-through screen that allows viewers to look beyond the panel even with the power turned on. LG Display and LG Electronics had commercialized the transparent OLEDs last year, but this is the first time the product will be revealed to the public through a TV show

  The unprecedented spread of the novel coronavirus in the past months has forced medical professionals to seek ways to minimize their contact with patients in testing while maximizing the scope of tracking the infection. Industry watchers say that the South Korean Health Ministry’s smartphone applications, for instance, are an applied form of rudimentary telemedicine by allowing people to self-test during quarantine to report their conditions to medical professionals. In Korea, wh

ULikeKorea, a livestock health care company, said Friday it has successfully detected early-stage bovine coronavirus in South Korea and Japan. Coronavirus is prevalent in animals, and few are lethal to humans and cause respiratory infections like the COVID-19, Middle East respiratory syndrome and severe acute respiratory syndrome. Coronaviruses are ribonucleic acid virus that are prone to mutation, and have the possibility of animal-to-human and human-to-animal infections, uLikeKorea CEO Kim

Samsung Biologics on Friday signed a binding letter of intent worth 440 billion won ($363 million) to manufacture US-based Vir’s COVID-19 treatment, starting 2021. It is the biggest single deal Samsung Biologics has taken since its 2016 initial public offering. Vir’s SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody (mAb) candidates VIR-7831 and VIR-7832 have demonstrated high potency in neutralizing the SARS-CoV-2 in live-virus cellular assays. The molecules were approved for fast-track developme

Shin Poong Pharm, the sudden and sole Korean beneficiary of the recent news of parasiticide ivermectin’s purported coronavirus-killing powers, is facing business uncertainties. The company’s uterine myoma treatment, a tablet of 5mg ulipristal acetate traded globally as Esmya, was found to have caused “serious liver injury” in a number of patients in Europe, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Esmya’s license is suspended in Europe until the Pharmac

South Korean scientists in Daegu have developed a diagnostic kit that will cut down the COVID-19 testing time from previous six hours to 20 minutes. This diagnostic agent has been transferred to a diagnostic kit maker called Mmonitor, whose website crashed due to heavy traffic as of 11 a.m., Thursday, upon the announcement by Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology. According to DGIST, its new diagnostic agent makes it possible to amplify genetic information of the coronavir

South Korea’s leading tech firms Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics reported better-than-expected operating profit for the first quarter of 2020, despite the sluggish economy on the back of the ongoing global virus pandemic. Samsung on Tuesday estimated a revenue of 55 trillion won ($45 billion) and operating profit of 6.4 trillion won, slightly above the stock market projections, while LG Electronics posted 14.9 trillion won revenue and 1.09 trillion won operating profit. While LG&

Ivermectin, a parasiticide, could be the next breakthrough solution to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to initial reports, but further tests must prove the efficacy of the drug in living organisms, experts say. Ivermectin became the center of attention after scientists from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia found that a single dose of the parasiticide could stop the replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus growing in a cell culture. Ivermectin effectively eradicated all genetic material of

Samsung Biologics said Monday it has signed a contract to develop PharmAbcine’s anti-cancer and angiogenesis material PMC-402. The South Korean firm will provide all-step CDO support from cell line development to clinical sample manufacturing and investigational new drug application, as well as produce preclinical and global clinical trial materials. PMC-402, according to PharmAbcine, helps normalize newly formed abnormal blood vessels that feed the growth of tumors, or the condition c

The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled trade in Korean personal health and hygiene products. According to the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Sunday, exports of hand sanitizers in March reached $5.69 million, a steep climb of more than 600 percent, or 12 times the volume, from the same month a year before. This one-month figure is equal to 84 percent of hand sanitizer exports for the whole of 2019. The spread of COVID-19 has led to explosive in international demand for Kore

Despite the ambivalent sentiments about COVID-19 vaccine development, South Korean biologics company Celltrion said it was determined to continue with the project. Celltrion on Thursday said it was now screening to select the most effective antibodies to neutralize the virus behind the pandemic with the Korea Centers for Disease Control. The company aims to finish the work in a couple of weeks, after which it will start mass production of the therapeutics for clinical studies while simultane

Danaher said Thursday it has launched Cytiva -- formerly GE Healthcare Life Sciences, which it acquired for $21.4 billion -- aiming to completely rebrand the biologics side of General Electric’s business. Cytiva’s projects, spanning from cell and gene therapies to protein research, biosimilar and novel biologics drug development, are highly in demand amid the COVID-19, according to the Cytiva CEO and president, Emmanuel Ligner. After the transition from GE Healthcare Life Science

When will social distancing end? Is there light at the end of this tunnel of “stay-at-home and postpone-your-weddings” while listening to news about rising mortality? As this prolonged period of COVID-19 outbreak chips away at our morale, global neighbors from hard-hit regions of Iran, Italy, Germany, the UK, the US and Mexico came together to share how they are getting through this time. (Yoga and Animal Crossing, anyone?) Meet in this video Hamed Soleimanzadeh (@hamedsoleimanzade

　지난 1월 20일 최초 신종 코로나바이러스 국내 확진자가 나온 이후 두 달 넘게 지속 되어온 사회적 거리두기에 국가적 피로도가 누적되고 있다. 　부푼 마음으로 세웠던 여러가지 신년계획이 무색하게 2020년의 1분기가 속수무책으로 지나가고 있는 요즘, 코로나19의 타격을 가장 많이 받고 있는 나라들 미국, 이란, 이탈리아, 독일, 영국, 멕시코에 사는 지구촌 이웃들이 코리아헤럴드에 응원의 메세지를 보내왔다. 　전세계가 함께 하는 사회적 거리두기. 영상편집: 임정요 기자 　멕시코의 아나는 명상과 단식으로 몸도 마음도 비워내고 있다고 한다. 사업을 운영하던 중 뜻밖의 휴식기를 가지게 된 셈. 이 기회에 인생의 목표를 재정립하겠다고 한다. 　미국의 케이시는 새로 출시된 동물의 숲 게임에 푹 빠져 산다. 멸망론적인 뉴스를 보며 겁 먹은채 매일을 보내느니 가상현실 세계에서 친구들과 게임을 하며 즐겁게 이 시기를 보내자는 입장이다. 　마찬가지로 영국의 타이무르는 코로나바이러스 사

South Korean biologics company GemVax & Kael said Tuesday it will expand its antiviral pipeline’s treatment scope to cover COVID-19. GemVax’s GV1001 is a telomerase-derived peptide that helps maintain the length of telomere, which is located at the end of human chromosome. Telomere acts as anti-inflammation, antioxidant, anti-aging and stem cell activation agent, effectively preventing cytokine storm. A cytokine storm is increasingly being recognized as the leading cause of COV

Samsung Display is planning to pull the plug on its liquid-crystal display business, which has been reeling from Chinese manufacturers’ low-priced large-volume cargo, according to industry sources Tuesday. The display unit of Samsung Group will reportedly close its seventh-generation and eighth-generation LCD manufacturing lines in South Korea and Xuzhou, China, in the first half of 2021. Currently, it manufactures 165,000 seventh-generation and 363,000 eighth-generation displays per mo

COVID-19 real-time PCR diagnostic kit manufacturer Solgent is working to meet rising global demands, the company said Monday. Solgent is genome precision medicine company Eone Diagnomics (EDGC)’s affiliate that is currently at its full capacity churning out 3,000 kits per week. With one kit, 100 people can test whether or not they are infected with the novel coronavirus. Over 20 nations are requesting Solgent to export its independently developed DiaPlexQ Novel Coronavirus Detection Kit