Allergan said Friday that it would initiate phase 3 clinical trials of Innotox, Medytox’s type A liquid botulinum toxin product, “as soon as is reasonably possible.”The announcement indicates that the trials for the cosmetic treatment, also known as BTX, would likely begin next year if Medytox supplies the testing batch as scheduled.This is the first time in more than a year the US drugmaker has officially spoken up on its development plans for Innotox, and its partnership with Seoul-based Medyt

　Google, which has long faced flak for not revealing how much money it makes in South Korea, has struck back at public accusations made by its local rival Naver this week.　In response to politicians’ intense criticism of Naver during a parliamentary audit on Wednesday, the Korean firm’s founder claimed that Google and Facebook made huge profits in Korea without paying any tax or creating jobs.　Google Korea released a statement Thursday saying that it fully abides by local tax regulations and con

Nexon unveiled “EA Sports FIFA Online 4,” a new PC online game developed by US video gaming giant Electronic Arts’ South Korea studio, during a media showcase held Thursday in Seoul. The new game seeks to build on the success of “EA Sports FIFA Online 3,” also developed by EA’s Korea studio Spearhead and distributed in Korea by Nexon from 2012. Nexon is the exclusive publisher of EA’s latest FIFA game for the Korean market once again.Built on a next-generation engine, “FIFA Online 4” was develop

In the latest face-off between humans and artificial intelligence, a South Korean professional gamer beat his AI opponents 4:0 in the PC strategy game StarCraft during a competition held Tuesday at Sejong University in Seoul.　Though the AI computers managed to beat two amateur players, the bots all lost against professional gamer Song Byung-gu, who is known as one of the best Starcraft players in the world. Three human players -- two student players and Song -- each competed against four AI bots

Naver founder Lee Hae-jin was heavily grilled by South Korean lawmakers during parliamentary audit sessions held on Monday and Tuesday that scrutinized the portal website’s news manipulation and uncontested monopoly over the local web advertisement market.The lawmakers also zeroed in on Naver’s core profit-generating services including its search ads and online shopping platform business.Lee, currently Naver’s Global Investment Officer, was summoned to an audit led by the Ministry of Science and

The state-run Seoul Bio Hub officially opened in Hongneung, central Seoul, Monday, with the city’s government pledging to lend support to promising local biohealth startups and to forge a biotechnology cluster here.The Seoul Metropolitan Government held a ceremony celebrating the opening of the first main building in the Seoul Bio Cluster, which houses collaboration offices to connect local biohealth startups with big industry players.Located in the facility is the Johnson & Johnson Innovation P

Korea’s biobank system has enjoyed some success in contributing to academic findings, but at a forum in Seoul last week, experts in the field argued the state-run Korea Biobank must move beyond its current research focus if South Korea is to play a lead role in fields such as precision medicine 　At the Korea Biobank Forum last week, they argued that administrators must provide more support to commercial operations in the biotech sector if the country is to make the most of the resource. 　Over th

　Apple opened up preorders for the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus in South Korea on Friday amid skepticism over their market success here as the two devices have been posting a weak initial sales record in other global markets.　Korea’s mobile carriers SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus began receiving online reservations for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus on Friday. Korea was included in the iPhone 8 series’ third wave of international releases following their official global debut on Sept. 22. 　The 4.

South Korea’s biggest botulinum toxin maker Medytox and its smaller rival Daewoong Pharmaceutical are stepping up their accusations against each other as the two are set to soon begin a legal fight in South Korea over the source of their BTX strain. 　Since last year, Medytox has claimed that Daewoong stole its BTX bacterial strain and related manufacturing secrets to develop its Type BTX Nabota. The issue was taken to court in the US in July this year, as Medytox filed a civil lawsuit in Califor

Kakao has merged its key transportation services including taxi hailing, chauffeur service and navigation into a single mobile app called Kakao T, while also adding a new parking lot search service to the app.Now available on mobile app stores, Kakao T brings together the various widely-used mobility apps run by Kakao, the operator of South Korea’s dominant mobile messenger KakaoTalk.The new app was launched by Kakao Mobility, a Kakao subsidiary formed in August to oversee the expansion and mone

Researchers in South Korea have developed a new technology that can predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease through a blood test before the physical symptoms start to show, paving the way for early diagnosis and treatment planning. 　　Alzheimer’s is a neurological disorder in which the death of brain cells causes memory loss and cognitive dementia. It is a progressive disease without a cure, and dementia symptoms worsen over time.　Scientists do not have a clear answer yet as to what causes Alzhe

South Korea must swiftly work to build up a strong medical big data system as it will form the backbone of future medicine led by personalized and predictive health care, biohealth experts in Seoul said Monday.　Large-scale datasets collected from wearables and biomedical sensors will be combined with artificial intelligence computing technologies to enable early diagnosis of diseases and guide treatment planning.“The biggest priority for Korea’s biohealth industry is nurturing a strong big data

Naver, which operates South Korea’s largest portal website, is facing growing calls to heighten transparency after it was found to have removed a negative news article upon request by the involved organization.　Naver admitted on Friday that it had taken down a news article criticizing the actions of the K League from the main page of the portal’s sports tab in October 2016. The confirmation came after allegations were raised by a local media outlet.It is the first confirmed case of media meddlin

South Korean internet giant Naver and YG Entertainment said Wednesday that they would begin preparations to jointly build a new global music service platform by pooling their technologies, resources and global influence.The move came seven months after Naver, Korea’s largest portal website operator, invested 100 billion won ($88.52 million) into YG Entertainment, which is home to big-name K-pop artists like Psy and Big Bang, seeking to tap YG’s strength in content. Under the partnership, Naver a

LG Chem on Wednesday launched Zemiro in South Korea. The combination tablet simultaneously treats diabetes and dyslipidemia, a condition in which an abnormal amount of lipids exist in the bloodstream. Developed by LG Chem’s biopharmaceuticals unit, Zemiro is a new combination tablet that merges LG’s diabetes drug Zemiglo -- a Diepeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor -- with the lipid reduction drug ingredient rosuvastatin.  (LG Chem)Patients who previously had to take two separate drugs can now take a

Though it may come as a surprise, North Korea has been pursuing the development of artificial intelligence technologies since the 1990s through its series of state-run tech software research agencies.　Once recognized as a relative leader in AI computing, North Korea’s AI development is expected to hit hurdles due to strained resources, suggests a new report released Tuesday by KDB Research.The economic think tank under the state-run Korea Development Bank said that North Korea’s AI development w

South Korean internet giant Naver on Tuesday unveiled a new artificial intelligence voice assistant speaker designed in the shape of two main characters from its mobile messenger Line.　Dubbed “Friends,” the smart speaker comes in two versions, each resembling Line messenger’s Brown, a brown bear, and Sally, a yellow chick. Naver's Friends smart speaker (Naver)The speaker runs on Clova, the AI-powered voice assistant platform co-developed by Naver and Line. Friends is designed to be portable unli

From an autonomous robot that collects books displaced by customers from bookstore shelves to cable-based robotic arms with humanlike flexibility and control, cutting-edge robotics technologies took center stage at Naver Corp.’s annual developer’s conference Deview 2017 which kicked off in Seoul on Monday.　Naver, which dominates Korea’s mobile and internet scene as the operator of Korea’s biggest portal website, has been looking to transform itself into a tech platform company that develops and

A US court has temporarily dismissed a lawsuit that South Korea’s botulinum toxin maker Medytox filed against its domestic rival Daewoong Pharmaceutical and its US partner Alphaeon Corp., claiming intellectual property theft.The Superior Court of California in Orange County on Thursday ruled that the case should be settled in Korea, the country where the issue initially emerged. It will review the case again on April 13, 2018, after Korea’s courts makes a decision on the case.Medytox released a

South Korea’s science and technology university KAIST has partnered with the World Economic Forum to help Korea and the global community prepare for the major changes and challenges expected to come from the “fourth industrial revolution.”KAIST and WEF signed a memorandum of understanding in Seoul on Friday, agreeing to cooperate in researching issues such as anticipated major labor market shifts as industries adopt next-generation technologies like artificial intelligence.It is the first formal