Nexon Korea said Tuesday it has donated 2 billion won ($1.6 million) to Korean Red Cross for crisis management amid ongoing COVID-19 spread. Its subsidiary Neople has also joined the effort. The donation will be used to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 infections, through emergency medical and relief aid. Nexon allocated 500 million won from the donation for Jeju Island, where the Neople headquarters is located. KRC President Park Kyung-seo expressed his gratitude to Nexon and pledg

Korean companies specializing in infection test kits are exporting their new real-time PCR COVID-19 assay kits to overseas destinations. They include KogeneBiotech, Seegene and PCL. With vaccine development for COVID-19 anticipated to take at least a year, the most realistic containment measure currently is to make a speedy diagnosis and follow up with effective quarantine, experts opine. While the numbers of confirmed cases have shot up in Korea -- 977 as of Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. -- the coun

Vaccines company SK Bioscience will build a research and development platform that will allow a speedy response to future outbreaks of mutant viruses, the company said Monday. COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome are ribonucleic acid coronaviruses that endlessly transform to outlive treatments. Developing vaccines for coronaviruses, therefore, generally requires one to five years. SK Bioscience said it envisions to shorten that by understanding what

Posco Chemical and OCI Company said Sunday that they will establish a hydrogen peroxide joint venture to tap the semiconductor processing materials business. According to the announcement, the JV will take shape in the second quarter of 2020, with a 51 percent stake to be held by Posco Chemical and 49 percent by OCI. The groundbreaking will take place this year, and commercial manufacturing is expected to begin in 2022. Hydrogen peroxide is an environmentally friendly oxidant that is widely us

The South Korean government is looking to revise the law that governs the games industry, with a view to supporting its growth rather than constraining it. For a nation that boasts ultrafast connectivity and a culture of internet cafes, one that is home to world-famous esports figures like League of Legends player Faker, Korea is a less ideal environment for game companies than one might imagine. A number of unusual speed bumps hinder a smooth ride on the path to growing a business. For 2020,

Samsung Electronics said Sunday it has signed a deal with U.S. Cellular to provide the American mobile carrier with 5G and 4G Long Term Evolution network solutions. This is the fourth US deal Samsung has clinched in the field of telecommunications and its first with U.S. Cellular. Under the agreement, U.S. Cellular can purchase Samsung’s 5G solutions, including New Radio technology, to boost its existing 4G LTE network services. U.S. Cellular is the fifth-largest telecom service prov

Virus-related games are gaining popularity amid the ongoing COVID-19 spread. Plague Inc., launched in 2012 by London-based company Ndemic Creations, especially enjoyed a spike in its daily user rate, sitting atop the charts of the respective Apple App Store in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, France and the UK, as of Tuesday, boasting unusual prominence for an 8-year-old game. In Korea, China and the US, the game is variably either first or second on the charts. “Can you infect the world?

With the coronavirus scare dragging down the amount of blood donations in South Korea well below average, exemplary cases of devoted blood donors are receiving spotlight. Battery company Samsung SDI employee Cho Hyun-su was acknowledged by the Korean Red Cross for donating blood more than 200 times over the past 20 years, according to the firm this week. Cho, 38, started giving blood from highschool years and have now drawn an accumulated 85 liters of his blood for others, which is equivalent

The year 2020 poses fresh challenges for Netmarble as the company strives to overcome a net loss from the acquisition of a home electronics company, while also adapting to the presence of two CEOs and tackling the global market with more game launches. Netmarble went into the red in the fourth quarter of 2019, having recorded a quarterly net loss of 6.3 billion won ($5.3 million) and a quarterly 10.3 billion won net loss attributable to its controlling shareholder. The loss resulted in part fr

When a team of South Korean researchers published research last month on a potential approach to treating bowel cancer, there was a huge buzz in the scientific media. There was no drug candidate for the approach but if one were found it could, in theory, mean that not just this, but other types of cancer could become a chronic illness rather than a life threatening condition. It would require years of study from here on, but at the end of our research will come the day when cancer patients

The US’ International Trade Commission has made a default judgment in favor of LG Chem in its suit against SK Innovation, LG Chem said Sunday, hinting that the end is near in the legal tug-of-war between the two Korean battery makers. A default judgment occurs when a court rules in favor of the plaintiff in default following the defendant’s failure to fulfill due responsibility in a legal case. The US ITC might disclose the reason for its decision in the coming week. If the ITC

Nexon reported marginal shifts in yearly revenue and operating profit, Thursday, maintaining business as usual thanks to revenue from V4 and cost-saving on overall marketing due to fewer releases last year. In 2019, Nexon earned 2.68 trillion won ($2.26 billion) in revenue and 1.2 trillion won in operating profit, up 4 percent and 3 percent on constant currency from the year before. Nexon is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section and is included on the Nikkei 300 Index. When adjust

SK Plasma said Wednesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding worth $330 million with Egypt’s state-run pharmaceutical company ACDIMA. Under the memorandum, SK Plasma will now contract manufacture plasma-derived medical products using 1 million liters of Egyptian plasma at its facility in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, which has an annual capacity of 600,000 liters. It will also transfer plasma fractionation technology to ACDIMA and construct a plasma fractionation plant

NCSoft is set to break through the 2 trillion won ($1.7 billion) annual revenue mark this year, on the back of Lineage2M and upcoming titles Aion 2 and Blade & Soul 2M. The company’s 2019 fiscal report released Wednesday showed that it earned 1.7 trillion won last year, down 1 percent from the previous year. While NCSoft shouldered a 22 percent on-year operating loss due to decreased royalties, in the fourth quarter alone, after the launch of new mobile game Lineage2M, the company r

Riot Games Korea announced Wednesday it will continue its corporate social responsibility program of cultural artifacts preservation and that it donated an additional 800 million won ($677,000) this year to the Cultural Heritage Administration. The Korean arm of the US-based game company has collaborated with the Cultural Heritage Administration since end-2011 to reclaim artifacts that were once lost but found in overseas locations. So far, Riot Games Korea has donated a total of over 6 bill

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday announced the launch of its upgraded wireless earphones Galaxy Buds+ armed with woofer sound and clearer mic function, with battery that can last for 11 hours on a single charge. Galaxy Buds+ is also the first set of wireless earphones from Samsung that is compatible with iOS, posing a competition to Apple’s latest AirPods Pro. Galaxy Buds+ is equipped with dynamic two-way speaker and three microphones for deeper sound and clearer voice calls, the firm expl

Biotech company Genexine’s CEO Sung Young-chul on Tuesday gifted his stocks worth 8.2 billion won ($6.9 million) to his two daughters, sons-in-law and wife. Genexine, which is listed on the secondary bourse Kosdaq, filed a disclosure on Friday about the transfer of stocks, but it was belatedly reported that his daughters were the beneficiaries. Sung has in the past gifted his stocks to academic associations, hospital and universities on several occasions, but this is the first time he h

GC Pharma and SK Plasma, the two South Korean companies that produce plasma-derived medical products, or PDMPs, are actively seeking overseas expansion to offset the limited blood supply in Korea. For companies that use human blood, or more specifically plasma, procuring sufficient amounts is the toughest obstacle to business. Blood can quite literally be turned into medicine once it is separated into its component parts. The red fluid running through our blood vessels is actually 55 percent

Samsung Electronics aired a surprise teaser commercial for its new foldable cell phone Z Flip, during the live Academy Awards 2020 on Sunday. Z Flip is the second foldable phone from Samsung Electronics, after the Galaxy Fold that launched in 2019. The Galaxy Fold horizontally folds, while the Z Flip shuts vertically. In the teaser, the clamshell type Z Flip could display an incoming call while shut closed in a square shape, allowing users to choose to accept or decline the call. The hinge

As Chinese authorities’ priorities shift to containing the novel coronavirus, concerns are rising that launch dates for drugs pending approval for the Chinese market may be postponed, according to industry sources on Sunday. No official announcement has been made by the Chinese drug authority National Medical Products Administration, but Korean pharma insiders widely believe all drug approvals may be pushed back. GC Pharma, Hanmi Pharmaceutical and Il Yang Pharmaceutical all have pendi