South Korea’s top semiconductor manufacturers, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, are expected to enjoy a super cycle in the global memory chip market until 2023, industry sources said Friday. According to international market tracker IC Insights, global sales of memory chips will reach a record high of $180.4 billion in 2022. The record for global memory sales was $163.3 billion in 2018, when manufacturers benefited from price hikes on rising demand during a so-called super memory cyc

The chief of the International Vaccine Institute said Thursday that he feels positive about the possibility of South Korea becoming an Asian manufacturing hub for COVID-19 vaccines. Dr. Jerome Kim, director general of the Seoul-based IVI, made the remarks during a conservation with Korea Society President Tom Byrne, released via YouTube. When asked if Korea has what it takes to become an Asian vaccine production hub in 6 to 9 months, he responded: “I think the short answer is yes.&rdqu

The video-streaming service  Netflix saw the number of its monthly active users in South Korea decline for a third consecutive month, data showed Thursday. It is the first time the figure has ever dropped for three straight months. Netflix had 8.08 million monthly active users here in April, down 1.9 percent from 8.24 million in March, according to the data published by market researcher Nielsen Koreanclick. The figure peaked at 8.99 million in January, according to the data. The vide

In the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, South Korea could step up as a global vaccine factory, if players unite to ramp up the country’s total production capacity, already the world’s second-largest, officials and industry insiders said Wednesday. Talks have already begun among local biopharmaceuticals to forge a consortium for co-production of the doses -- in particular the entirely new type of mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the sources said.

A group of South Korean biopharmaceutical companies are in talks to forge a consortium for co-production of COVID-19 vaccines in anticipation of a patent waiver, industry sources said Tuesday. According to the bio industry insiders who declined to be named, the talks involve about 10 local firms including Hanmi Pharmaceutical, Genexine, GC Pharma, GeneOne Life Science, ST Pharm, as well as Seoul National University, Pohang University of Science and Technology and Myongji Medical Foundation. T

Local demand for biotech company GC Pharma‘s experimental plasma treatment against the new coronavirus remains even after the company failed to receive conditional use approval here, according to industry sources Tuesday. According to sources, Kyungpook National University Hospital on Friday received an emergency use authorization for the treatment, just three days after the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety rejected GC Pharma‘s application for conditional use. In South Korea, expe

LG Group announced Monday that it plans to invest over $100 million over the next three years to develop high-performance computing infrastructure for artificial intelligence development. LG Group’s AI research and development unit LG AI Research will build computing infrastructure with 600 billion machine learning parameters. The new computing system, capable of making 95.7 quadrillion calculations per second, will be introduced during the second half of the year and followed by an AI m

LG Innotek, LG Group’s cutting-edge manufacturer of materials and components, is holding an exhibition to showcase its business history, current market status and product lineups. It will take place online and offline simultaneously. The purpose of the event is to help LG Innotek’s business partners and the public to better understand the company, it said. The online exhibition comprises two separate segments. One is designed especially for the company’s corporate partners,

The South Korean government has started looking into an allegation that Google restricted applications downloaded from other app stores from accessing Android Auto, the company’s mobile operating software for in-car use. According to the industry and government sources Sunday, the Korea Communications Commission has recently opened a probe to see if Google has violated the Telecommunications Business Act here. “The commission would see if Google has unfairly limited end users&rsqu

South Korean media is zeroing in on Samsung BioLogics as the most likely partner of Moderna in its COVID-19 vaccine production here, a much-anticipated deal as the country deals with a vaccine shortage. A formal announcement of the Samsung-Moderna deal will be made during South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s visit this week to the US for a summit with US President Joe Biden, a local TV station reported Friday, with a flurry of related reports coming from other media outlets over the wee

South Korean biotech and pharmaceutical companies could expand their partnerships with COVID-19 vaccine providers in the US, as an upcoming bilateral summit between leaders of the two countries could serve as a meeting ground, according to local news reports on Thursday. The reports said executive members of Samsung Group and SK Group could meet with Moderna and Novavax to discuss potential contract manufacturing deals, when they visit the US as part of a large-scale delegate that would join P

More than 6 out of 10 South Koreans feel unsafe taking the COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out in the country, compared with fewer than 3 in 10 in the UK, a global survey has found. According to the comparative study conducted by Cigna, an international health care and insurance company, some 64 percent of 1,031 people surveyed in Korea answered that they were worried about the side effects of the jabs available in the country. This was slightly higher than the global average of 62 percent.

Founded in 1999 as a textile company in South Korea, Ventex took a risk and ventured into uncharted territory, and fortunately, that paid off.　 The company, which used to produce chemical materials for functional textile products, now makes antibacterial biochemical materials with a much wider range of applications, including hand sanitizer, cosmetics, textbooks, paints and sanitization and deodorization solutions. Behind the dramatic transformation was sustained investment in research and de

Ventex started off in 1999 as a tiny textile developer. Through a relentless search for new materials using nanotechnology, the Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province-based company is now building its global presence as a biochemical company. According to founder and CEO Go Gyeong-chan, the company is on course to achieve 34.8 billion won ($31.2 million) in sales this year, which is expected to more than double to 73.5 billion won next year. Driving the growth are disinfection and sanitization produc

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion said Tuesday that the company has submitted marketing approval applications for the company’s COVID-19 treatment to health authorities in several countries in the Middle East. The countries include Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Iraq and Morocco. Celltrion’s announcement on Tuesday followed a day after the company said it landed its first overseas supply deal to export 100,000 vials of Regkirona to Pakistan. Celltrion expects

When walking into a restaurant, people usually have a sense about how expensive the food would be. But when it comes to cosmetic surgery clinics here, it is a different story. Not many -- perhaps none -- openly display the price of their services or procedures, not to mention the specs of medical equipment they use. “Say that I want to receive a skin toning laser treatment and there are two hospitals. One uses equipment that costs 200 million won (about $180,000), and the other uses o

South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion clinched the first overseas supply deal for its COVID-19 antibody treatment Regkirona, according to Celltrion Healthcare’s announcement on Monday. Celltrion Healthcare, which is in charge of Celltrion‘s overseas business, signed a contract with a state-run company in Pakistan to export 100,000 vials of Regkirona, enough for around 30,000 people. The firm will dispatch its experts to Pakistan to train medical workers who will administer t

A panel of medical experts here gave a nod to US pharmaceutical company Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Monday. The advisory panel’s review is the first of the three-stage evaluation process before South Korea gives final approval. The next stage of the evaluation is scheduled on Thursday. If finally approved, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine would become the fourth COVID-19 vaccine to receive an approval from the South Korean govern

Samsung Electronics will share its 505 patented technologies with local small and medium enterprises, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Friday. The list comprises 213 mobile technologies, 68 semiconductor technologies, 68 display technologies, 45 telecommunications technologies and 31 medical equipment technologies, and others. The SMEs that wish to benefit from the governments technology transfer program are required to submit their application via the ministry or the Korea Ins

Roche Diagnostics Korea announced Thursday that the company has received approval for the cobas test, an assay used to specifically detect the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus in laboratories settings. According to Roche, the cobas test is capable of qualitative detection and differentiation between SARS-CoV-2, Influenza A and Influenza B present in nasal swab samples collected from individuals suspected of a respiratory infection. Roche’s laboratory-based assay cobas SARS