GC Pharma and its affiliated companies GCMS and GC LabCell posted record earnings in 2020, they announced Tuesday. GC Pharma’s consolidated earnings report showed that it made 1.5 trillion won ($1.34 billion) in revenue in 2020, up 10.8 percent on-year. It was the best figure in the company’s history since 1967. In the same period, operating profit marked 50.3 billion won, up 20.6 percent on-year, while net profit came to 89.3 billion won. GC Pharma accounted the robust gro

Seegene, the diagnostics company at the helm of South Korea’s speedy grip on COVID-19 countermeasures, was found to have cooked its books to make it look more profitable, according to the Financial Supervisory Service. The financial watchdog suggested the firm remove a key official involved in the fiscal malpractice. Seegene will be fined, with the amount not yet decided, and assigned a special auditor for the next three years. The official in question had already resigned at the time

Vuno, one of South Korea’s leading medical artificial intelligence companies, will make an initial public offering Feb. 26, CEO Kim Hyun-joon said at a press event Monday. Advance subscriptions for Vuno’s stocks will take place Feb. 16 and 17 through underwriters Mirae Asset Daewoo and Samsung Securities. Vuno is newly issuing 1.8 million shares upon going public. At an estimated 15,000 won to 19,500 won per share, Vuno is attempting to raise as much as 35.1 billion won with the li

Celltrion Pharm said Monday that it is rolling out Remsima SC in Korea for at-home treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. With Remsima SC, or subcutaneous Remsima, there is no need to visit the hospital for regular therapeutic shots for the aforementioned autoimmune diseases now. Remsima is an intravenous infliximab treatment that has to be prepared and administered by medical professionals at hospitals. Remsima SC, on the other hand, comes in pen-type autoinjecto

Samsung Electronics’ plans to build semiconductor foundry plants in the US could yield $8.9 billion in the local economy, according to analysis by Impact DataSource, quoted in Samsung Electronics’ letter of intent to the Texas authorities. According to industry sources, Samsung Electronics sees the high tax rates in Texas as an obstacle to its plans for larger business in Austin, and is reviewing alternatives such as New York, Arizona and Korea for is future investment. An official

  　Samsung Electronics will launch the Galaxy A12 phone in South Korea on Tuesday at a price of 275,000 won ($246).   　The Galaxy A12 has four cameras on the back, with a 5,000-milliamp-hour battery designed to last the full day and support 15-watt fast charging.   　The rear quadcamera features a 48-megapixel main camera with live focus function, a 5-megapixel ultrawide-angle lens, a 2-megapixel depth camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera. The front camera has 8 megapixels. &nb

SK Bioscience is collaborating with GlaxoSmithKline in COVID-19 vaccine development, the company said Thursday. According to SK Bioscience, its COVID-19 vaccine candidate GBP510 has shown improved T cell activity, or immune response, when used in combination with GSK’s adjuvant AS03. The two companies are running a clinical phase 1/2 trial of GBP510 and AS03, since the local drug authority’s approval of the clinical test design on Jan. 26. Adjuvants are immune boosters that are ad

Korean mask company IK HealMade on Thursday said that it is more than ready for the full-fledged global exports of its FFP2-certified and US FDA-approved masks. The company’s remark is targeted for Europe, as in January the southeastern German state of Bavaria made it compulsory for people to wear FFP2 masks in shops and on public transport. The FFP2 certification signifies the mask has passed some 20 tests and demonstrated successful filtration of more than 94 percent of aerosol conten

South Korea on Wednesday gave special approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 mRNA vaccine Comirnaty, specifically for the batch to be imported through the global COVAX facility. As per this decision, a total of 117,000 doses of Comirnaty will arrive in Korea after mid-February, the country’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said. As the vaccine needs to be administered twice, the COVAX batch can cover around 60,000 people. Authorities have made clear that the initial batch of vaccines are

At-home skin care is evolving more than ever as facial creams are getting borderline therapeutic. An increasing number of pharmaceutical firms are branching out into the cosmetics business, aiming to apply therapeutic science, such as stem cell, probiotics and microbiome, to help treat skin trouble and aging. For biotechs, it is a way of making use of their factory production lines that can double as a cosmetics manufacturing site when operation rate is low and to secure cash flows during the

AstraZeneca’s viral vector vaccine had 62 percent efficacy against some 8,900 clinical candidates aged 42.2 on average, according to Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Monday. The ministry is running a three-leg review of each COVID-19 therapy or vaccine that has applied for emergency use in Korea. So far, Celltrion’s antibody therapy, AstraZeneca’s viral vector vaccine and Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA vaccines have made the applications, in that order. The Dr

The COVID-19 pandemic has thwarted many businesses, but for some, it acted as a stressor for growth. On the back of increased contactless working, Naver’s Cloud service experienced a 41.4 percent on-year revenue growth in 2020 at 273.7 billion won ($245.3 million). Naver Cloud currently offers the biggest portfolio of cloud services within Korea at a total of 173 products in 16 categories. It operates a separate cloud system for financial businesses like banks and for public institutions

　LG Chem, LG Display, Kia and a score of other companies on Wednesday released business results from the final quarter of 2020, summing up a year hit hard by the infectious disease and restrained consumer sentiment. 　Despite the unfavorable market conditions, some managed to report surprisingly strong earnings in the face of adversity. 　 LG Chem breaks record 　 　Strong battery sales pushed revenues of LG Chem to a record high in 2020. 　The country’s leading chemical company reported

Samsung Biologics joined the club of companies making more than 1 trillion won in revenue in 2020, just nine years after its founding. According to the company’s fourth quarter earnings report made Tuesday, Samsung Biologics’ full-year revenue increased 66 percent on-year in 2020, marking 1.16 trillion won ($1 billion). The previous year, Samsung Biologics made 463 billion won in revenue. Its operating profit also rose 12 percent on-year to 292.8 billion on, from the previous ye

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine’s temporary supply reduction in Europe has sparked worries for a possible delay in shipments here, but Pfizer Korea said Tuesday that Korea will suffer no such setback. “For the doses Pfizer Korea has signed with the South Korean government, there appears to be no problem with the supply,” a Pfizer Korea official told The Korea Herald. Pfizer and BioNTech announced via press release dated Jan. 15, that the companies have decided to scale-up the manufa

Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Monday that it has started the 40-day expedited review process for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer applied for the emergency use approval of its vaccine Monday, the Drug Ministry said. If it passes the fast-track review, the vaccine could be available in Korea no later than mid-March. The mRNA vaccine will be produced in Belgium, according to Pfizer. It is the second COVID-19 vaccine seeking local use permit. AstraZeneca on Jan.

Daewoong Pharmaceutical said Monday that it plans to conduct a clinical phase 3 trial for its drug targeted at preventing COVID-19. 　 The company received an approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to begin the last stage of clinical trials for the drug, Foistar, on Friday. “Foistar is convenient to administer as oral medication. Its mechanism is expected to work best in the early phase of viral replications. As the drug would hold efficacy against viral mutations, we hope it

SK Holdings, an investment-focused holdings firm within SK Group, said Sunday that it will focus its investment on four business areas: advanced materials, green, bio and digital. For investment expertise and efficiency, the company has reorganized its operations according to the four sectors, it added. “2021 will be a meaningful year for SK Holdings in this four-way investment drive,” CEO Jang Dong-hyun said via a press release. The company kicked off the year with a 1.6 trill

Rummaging around for car keys may soon become a relic of the past. South Korea’s electronic component manufacturing firm LG Innotek said Sunday that it has succeeded in developing a digital car key module that would enable smartphones to replace car keys. The module is equipped with high-precision location detection ability and has reliable security functions, LG Innotek said. The company is actively running promotions targeting global manufacturers of vehicles and vehicle components in

A lack of hospital beds has been one of the painstaking points of COVID-19 pandemic as more and more medical institutions around the globe become overwhelmed with patients amid the relentless spread of the coronavirus. GreenPureTech., a Seoul-based medical equipment provider, hopes to provide quick relief to this bed crunch and contribute to saving more lives. According to CEO Lim Hyung-bo, the company is an unrivalled leader in the field of movable negative pressure rooms in South Korea, wi