SK Bioscience will invest a total of 325.7 billion won ($258 million) for the relocation of its research and production base to Songdo, Incheon, according to the company on Thursday. The new complex will have new R&D and production facilities as well as the company's new headquarters. The Songdo Global Research & Process Development Center will be built on a plot of land measuring 30,413.8 square meters, which the company purchased for 41.9 billion won. When the construction is comp

International shoppers are returning to South Korea amid eased virus restrictions, seeing sales rebound for local department stores. Hanwha Galleria, the retail arm of the Hanwha Group, said on Tuesday that sales in the luxury goods section at the Galleria Department Store in Apgujeong-dong, a posh shopping district in southern Seoul, had increased by 500 percent on-year between August and January. Hanwha Galleria’s Apgujeong branch is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Gangna

Korean pharmaceutical firm Chong Kun Dang said Monday that it signed a licensing deal with Dutch company Synaffix to gain access to the latter's technologies needed to develop new antibody drug conjugates. The size of the deal, which was inked Friday, is estimated at around $132 million, plus tiered royalties on commercial sales in the future. “The company will speed up development of next-generation anti-cancer treatment through the latest deal with Synaffix,” said Chong Kun Da

Korean biopharmaceutical firm SK Bioscience is expected to log a sharp decline in its sales and operating profit for 2022, as demand wanes for COVID-19 vaccines, its key source of revenue, according to a report from a local securities firm on Friday. The company’s annual sales for last year are expected to drop 49 percent on-year to 474.2 billion won ($385.7 million), while its operating profit is also expected to plunge 70.3 percent to 141 billion won, the report released by Meritz Securi

The government’s decision to lift its indoor mask mandate has been welcomed by many, but it is being seen as a giant threat to the survival of mask manufacturers already struggling to stay afloat here. "We are just hanging in there,” Jung, an owner of a small mask manufacturing company, told The Korea Herald. “It will be difficult to hold out if the current situation continues.” Local manufacturers are now suffering from shrinking mask demand. Many manufacturers have

The combination use of Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine’s camrelizumab and HLB Bio’s rivoceranib has received a novel drug approval from the National Medical Products Administration of China, HLB Bio announced Wednesday. With the approval, the camrelizumab-rivoceranib combination can be used as the first-line treatment for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma in China. The approval was given three years and nine months after the company started its phase 3 clinical trial April

Daewoo Engineering & Construction has posted an annual operating profit of 760 billion won ($617 million), an all-time high in the company’s history. Daewoo E&C’s operating profit in 2022 was up 2.9 percent from the previous year’s 738.3 billion won, according to a regulatory filing released Tuesday. Annual sales last year reached 10.4 trillion won, up 20 percent from 8.6 trillion won in 2021. The construction company also reported that its 2022 net profit reached 508 b

Posco Group Chairman Choi Jeong-woo met with Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan on Monday to discuss their cooperation on hydrogen and secondary battery materials businesses, the company said Tuesday. Posco “needs an intimate collaboration with Australia on hydrogen and secondary battery materials sectors,” Choi said during his meeting with McGowan at Posco Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. During the meeting, Choi and McGowan shared their development status and business strategies re

Kolmar Korea, a cosmetics original design manufacturer, is considering building its second manufacturing facility in the US, a company official said Monday. Olyphant, Pennsylvania, is being discussed as the location for the new manufacturing facility, an official from Kolmar Korea said, but plans about the size or timeline have not been decided. In 2016, Kolmar Korea entered the US market by acquiring Pennsylvania-based cosmetics ODM maker Process Technologies & Packaging. The company has be

Korean contract manufacturer Samsung Biologics' earnings in 2022 hit all-time high, mainly because its biopharmaceutical unit was included in the consolidated financial result after a full acquisition early in the year. Its sales almost doubled to 3 trillion won ($2.4 billion) from 1.56 trillion won in 2021, according to its regulatory filing on Friday. It logged 983.6 billion won in operating profit, up 83 percent from 537.3 billion won a year earlier. The dollar figure above has been calc

KT&G, South Korea's dominant tobacco and ginseng company, rolled out an aggressive mid-term business plan Friday to bolster its investment and sales in an apparent move to fend off a campaign launched by a Singapore-based activist fund. Under the plan, the company will invest a total of 3.9 trillion won ($3.1 billion) until 2027 with it businesses focused three areas -- next generation tobacco and nicotine products, often referred to e-cigarettes, and health supplement products includin

South Korean steel giant Posco has set up a task force to overcome economic difficulties. Vice Chairman Kim Hak-dong will spearhead the task force, according to industry sources, Thursday. The task force is expected to focus on reducing costs spent on procuring raw materials, increasing profitability and maximizing business liquidity on the backdrop of difficulties in the global economy. In an email sent to Posco employees, Kim said, “let’s find out measures to save at least 1,000 wo

The Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-pharma Manufacturers Association on Friday sent a written opinion to the US government, in which the business lobby raised concerns over the Biden administration's executive order aimed at bolstering domestic production of biotechnology and biomanufacturing products. "The US should not take discriminatory measures against its allies,” the association said in a statement released on Wednesday, adding that the executive order should not violate the

Just like people, pets also lose large amounts of blood from accidents, diseases and surgeries, and therefore require blood transfusions. But, there is currently not enough donated blood in South Korea. That’s why keen attention is being paid to a bill recently proposed at the National Assembly that aims to set up a control tower within the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to oversee and facilitate blood collection for animals. Demand for blood transfusion for animals

Posco Holdings, the holding firm of steelmaking conglomerate Posco Group, Friday estimated a 46.7 percent on-year drop in operating profit last year, mainly due to suspended operations in typhoon-hit steel manufacturing plants in Pohang The firm's annual operating profit fell to 4.9 trillion won ($3.9 billion) from 9.2 trillion won in 2021. Posco Holdings noted the temporary closing of manufacturing facilities in Pohang caused by a typhoon last year resulted in a loss of 1.3 trillion won in

Samsung Biologics, the country's largest contract manufacturing company, will run its production lines at full throttle during the upcoming Lunar New Year's holiday to ensure timely delivery of pouring orders, industry sources said Tuesday. An official from Samsung Biologics also noted the company has been operating 24/7, 365 days a year to meet its goals in regards to promised delivery times. Samsung Biologics also maintained its production level during the Chuseok holiday last year a

Harry, who has called South Korea home for 16 years, is considering moving someplace else with more affordable child care. A senior semiconductor engineer working for a conglomerate here, he and his wife pay some 1 million won ($810) a month for their two young children to attend day care. Unlike Korean parents, who pay far less for day care thanks to monthly government subsidies, foreigners are not eligible for the aid. “If I’m able to find a job or get a good offer from any country

Korea Herald correspondent SAN FRANCISCO -- ABL Bio will release the results of early stage clinical trials regarding the company's oncology treatment candidates in this year, with hopes in license-out opportunities. “ABL Bio expects to introduce favorable clinical data regarding the company’s oncology treatment candidates,” ABL Bio CEO Lee Sang-hoon said on Thursday during an interview held on the sidelines of the 41th JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. ABL

SK pharmteco, a California-based contract development and manufacturing organization under Korean conglomerate SK Inc., is expected to postpone its initial public offering at least until 2024 due to market volatility, top officials from the firm and SK affiliates said Wednesday. The year of 2024 will be “the earliest possible period” to reconsider the company's stock market debut, said SK pharmteco CEO Joerg Ahlgrimm. SK's CDMO unit initially planned to go public on Korea

By Shim Woo-hyun Korea Herald correspondent SAN FRANCISCO -- Samsung Biologics pinpointed antibody-drug conjugates, a next-generation technology in cancer treatment, as one of its future growth drivers as the South Korean biotech giant unveiled its business strategies and investment plans Wednesday during the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, the health care industry’s largest investment gathering of the year. “We are going into ADC. We will have a manufacturing plan