Samsung BioLogics, a contract manufacturer of biologic drugs under South Korea’s Samsung Group, said Thursday that its second production plant in Songdo had been approved for commercial production by the US Food and Drug Administration.　With the US FDA license, Samsung’s second plant equipped with 152,000 liters of production capacity is now able to commercially manufacture its first monoclonal antibody biologic drug substance for sale to the US. Samsung BioLogics` headquarters in Songdo, Incheo

Olympus on Thursday announced the opening of a new training center in South Korea’s port city of Songdo, Incheon, joining other global health care firms that have set up new training bases in the city’s biotechnology cluster on the back of Korea’s growing medical and biotech sectors.　Olympus Korea's medical training center will help local medical professionals learn to maneuver and operate the firm’s endoscopy devices in an operation room setting, it said.　The Japanese surgical equipment company

South Korea is pushing to ease its bioethics law to allow local scientists and academics to research and develop a wider variety of gene therapies as the country seeks to boost the fast-growing biotechnology sector. 　Local lawmakers led by Rep. Shin Yong-hyun of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea on Tuesday submitted a motion to amend Korea’s Bioethics and Safety Act to expand the permitted scope of gene therapy research to include all diseases.　Right now, the act restricts gene therapy resear

South Korean pharmaceutical company Yuhan Corp. said Wednesday that it had become Samsung Bioepis’ exclusive marketing partner to sell two of Samsung’s biosimilar drugs in Korea, replacing the role of MSD Korea.The two companies have signed an agreement under which Yuhan will exclusively market and sell Samsung’s biosimilars referencing Enbrel and Remicade in Korea, Yuhan said. Previously, US-based MSD, or Merck & Co., had sold the two Samsung-developed biosimilars, which are marketed locally un

Amid persistent military tension on the Korean Peninsula, a survey suggested that South Korea is ill-prepared to deliver radio broadcasts to key underground locations including subway stations and road tunnels during disasters and emergencies. A report released Tuesday by Rep. Shin Kyumg-min of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea found there was poor radio connectivity in 88 percent of South Korea’s road tunnels and subway stations. The survey was compiled by the state-run Korea Communications

South Korea’s Daewoong Pharmaceutical said Tuesday that its newly-constructed botulinum toxin production plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, has received local regulatory clearance.　The Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has granted Good Manufacturing Practice approval to Daewoong’s new plant designed to manufacture Nabota, the drugmaker’s botulinum toxin. With the addition, Daewoong now possesses two plants able to collectively produce 5 million vials of the wrinkle-fighting drug. If nee

South Korean drug regulators on Monday granted sales approval to SK Chemicals’ herpes zoster vaccine, marking the second ever approval by a country’s regulator of a new treatment targeting the viral disease.The Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved SK’s Sky Zoster vaccine for use in adults aged 50 and over. It is the second vaccine for herpes zoster to be commercialized globally next to US-based Merck & Co.’s Zostavax approved in 2006.Herpes zoster, also known as shingles, is a viral

In the age of “digital health care,” high-tech wearables, cutting-edge medical devices and integrated apps combined with major breakthroughs in data computing and analytics capabilities are set to pave new frontiers in the health care sector.　And in the global race to take over this emerging industry, South Korea’s innovative tech startups with an expertise in so-called “deep tech” involving complex engineering skills and software expertise could gain an upper hand, according to the founding chi

Line Corp. on Thursday hosted Line Developer Day 2017 in Tokyo for engineers to discuss the company’s technology-related advances, strategies and future plans, the company said Sunday.The annual tech conference consisted of 39 sessions on topics including the Line messenger app, the Clova cloud artificial intelligence platform, the LINE Messaging application programming interface, LINE API Expert accreditation system, and the new Line Kyoto “developer base” expected to be launched in spring next

South Korean researchers have developed a portable wireless sensor which is able to detect a person’s intake of amphetamine-based drugs like Adderall, Ecstasy and Crystal Meth using just a drop of sweat, saliva or urine.　The sensor was co-developed by Korea’s Institute for Basic Science and Pohang University of Science and Technology. Their work was published Friday in Chem, a sister journal to the physical sciences journal Cell.Right now, drug testing involves using complex diagnostics devices

Hanmi Pharmaceutical has presented two drug candidates employing its proprietary Lapscovery platform technology at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.The two therapies in development are a triple agonist for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and Parkinson’s, and a glucagon analog for treating congenital hyperinsulinism.Both drugs employ Hanmi’s Lapscovery — short for Long Acting Protein and Peptide Discovery — which extends the life of a biologic drug within the body, extending i

BUSAN — Artificial intelligence has recently begun to step closer into our lives — primarily in the form of voice-activated smart speakers like the Amazon Echo and Google Home or digital assistant software built into smartphones like Apple’s Siri or Samsung’s Bixby.　These devices all claim to be the so-called “chatbots,” but their ability to converse mostly stops at providing answers to one-ended inquiries or carrying out specific tasks commanded by humans.Seeking to create a more personable AI,

BUSAN — In the real world, only the big bosses get a personal secretary to manage their schedule and set up meetings at the most suitable time. But a new digital scheduling assistant may change that with just an email. Meet Kono, a new artificially intelligent scheduling bot developed by South Korean tech startup Konolabs. The smart bot syncs with calendar apps built into smartphones like Google Calendar, and is powered by an AI engine equipped with machine learning and natural language processi

South Korean chipmaker SK hynix is on track to becoming a global NAND flash memory powerhouse, as it is part of an international consortium that is on course to take over Japanese tech giant Toshiba’s memory chip business unit.Toshiba’s memory chip unit is the second-largest NAND flash memory manufacturer in the world after Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics, while the chip manufacturing unit of SK Group comes fifth in the sector.The Japanese tech firm, which has been suffering a financial cr

South Korea’s SK Telecom is seeking to become a global leader in 5G network technologies by preparing to become the first industry player to commercialize the ultrafast network by 2019.　SKT recently topped the list of “most promising” 5G network operators worldwide by UK-based market research firm Juniper Research for its forward trialing of 5G-enabling core technologies including millimeter waves, multiple-input multiple-output, or MIMO, transmission as well as network splicing. The Korean tele

Six years ago, Line Corp. successfully edged out western rivals like Facebook and WeChat to rise as the dominant mobile messaging service chosen by major Asian markets including Japan, Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia.And now, the Tokyo-based mobile messaging app operator is on track to achieve its broader vision of expanding into a full-fledged consumer platform by leveraging its strengths in localization and data-driven artificial intelligence technology.Line, touted as a rare case of a globaliz

In South Korea, Kakao Corp. dominates the mobile scene. Since overtaking the country’s mobile messaging market with KakaoTalk, the company has leveraged the clout of its messenger app to provide a range of new mobile services ranging from games, web comics to payment, e-commerce and even taxi hailing.　Despite its domestic glory, 7-year-old Kakao has continuously faced concerns and doubts over its growth potential as its messenger is confined to Korea with little presence in countries abroad.　Tho

South Korea’s mobile carrier KT has set out to develop a new nationwide network to monitor and manage ultrafine dust levels by leveraging its existing telecommunications infrastructure and network technologies.KT said Wednesday announced the launch of the “Air Map Korea Project,” pledging to invest 10 billion won ($8.87 million) for the nationwide project.KT's telecommunications infrastructure installed across Korea (KT)The company plans to turn its network infrastructure — most of which are loc

DIGITAL HEALTH STARTUPS ON SHOW -- Bayer Korea and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency held Tuesday a “demo day” showcasing the finalists of their jointly-launched digital health care startup accelerator program Grants4Apps Korea. Three local startups -- rapid-cooling anesthesia device maker RecensMedical, Sky Labs, which developed a ring-type wearable that monitors and detects arrhythmia, and pet-tech company GomiLabs -- presented their products and technologies in front of investors an

Online shooting game “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” developed by South Korea’s Bluehole Studio has broken the record for the highest concurrent player count on Steam, the world’s largest online video game store platform.The game, which was released as an early access beta version on Steam around six months ago, hit the milestone by achieving more than 1.34 million concurrent player counts Saturday, Bluehole said this week.With the new record, “Battlegrounds” beat the top peak player count recor