Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine development subsidiary of French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, said Tuesday it would officially launch its new quadrivalent influenza vaccine in South Korea next month.Sanofi’s four-strain flu vaccine, Vaxigrip Tetra, is able to protect against four strains of influenza -- two influenza strains (H1N1, H3N2) and two influenza B strains (Yamagata, Victoria).According to Sanofi Pasteur, Vaxigrip Tetra is an expanded version of Vaxigrip, its three-way flu vaccine currently

Hanmi Pharmaceutical shares soared 7.29 percent from the previous trading day to a close of 397,500 won on Monday, fueled by an improved development outlook for the firm’s drugs that were out-licensed to global companies.Janssen, Johnson & Johnson’s drug development subsidiary, recently obtained the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval to carry out a new set of phase 1 clinical trials for Hanmi-developed drug candidate JNJ-64565111.Janssen had suddenly suspended the trials of Hanmi’s drug

South Korea will kickstart procedures to install a free, ultrafast public Wi-Fi system within Seoul’s subways by 2019 this week, resuming the state-led project that had been pushed back over procedural transparency issues.The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Metro Corp., which operates the city’s subway lines 1-8, is set to start accepting bids from companies for Seoul’s metro system telecom service improvement project from Monday.The government had initially sought to complete the pr

South Korean mobile game giant Netmarble Games is stepping up its social contribution efforts to foster a healthy gaming culture and development community in Korea.　Netmarble currently operates 31 game culture experience centers across the country’s special education schools for the disabled as part of its 10-year-old social benefit program. It has also been holding an e-sports gaming tournament for disabled students since 2009. Last year, the Korean mobile gamemaker newly launched the “Netmarbl

South Korea’s Netmarble Games said Thursday that its mobile game “Lineage II: Revolution” had become the top-grossing app in Japan’s Apple App Store, just 18 hours after its official launch in the country. 　It is the first time that a Korea-made mobile game has taken the No. 1 spot in app revenue ranking in Japan’s App Store, marking a milestone for Korea’s mobile game business.Netmarble released “Lineage II: Revolution,” a mobile role-playing game based on the storyline of NCSoft’s popular PC o

Five months after the souring of South Korea-China relations over Seoul’s deployment of a US missile defense system, China continues to deny approval to South Korean game companies seeking to publish their mobile games in China. In March this year, China reportedly stopped issuing new service licenses to Korea-made games as part of economic retaliation against Seoul’s preparations to install the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, which China has been vehemently opposing.Months have pass

South Korea is one of the world’s most wired countries where close to 90 percent of the population owns a smartphone, with a large number of them made by the country’s tech giant Samsung Electronics. As Samsung’s devices run on Google’s Android operating system, the open source software has undoubtedly had a significant impact on Korea’s digital economy. The question is -- exactly how much economic value has it really generated for local businesses and users?　Google Korea has sought to answer th

Samsung Bioepis said Monday that it would jointly fund and co-develop multiple novel biologic therapies with Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical, expanding its current business from making copies of existing biologic drugs to developing original drugs. 　　Under the partnership, the two companies will begin developing new drug candidates in unmet disease areas, starting with a new treatment for severe acute pancreatitis labeled TAK-671. The deal marks a milestone for the biopharma development unit of Sa

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles highlighting South Korea’s promising startups in the emerging sectors of digital health care and next-generation medical devices. This is the 11th installment. -- Ed.Every year, around 15 million people around the world suffer from a stroke, according to the World Health Organization. Among them, approximately two thirds are said to survive and require rehabilitation.Rehabilitation helps stroke survivors relearn key motor skills that are lost w

LG CNS, the internet technology solutions unit of South Korea’s LG Group, has begun offering cloud integration services to interested clients, becoming the first IT system solutions provider to pave this new market in Korea.　LG CNS announced Friday that it is now providing “cloud integration” services that help corporate clients develop and deploy the optimal cloud-based IT system in the most desired, efficient and cost-effective way possible.　Cloud computing refers to computing based on the int

Dongwon Group said Friday that its founding Chairman Kim Jae-chul has received an honorary doctorate degree from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology. GIST awarded Kim the honorary degree given his contributions to the academic institution as its former board chairman and his high level of entrepreneurship as the founder of Dongwon, the firm said. Dongwon Group chairman Kim Jae-chul (Dongwon Group)The Gwangju-based institute presented the degree at a ceremony held Friday at the school

Naver Labs, the new technology research and development unit of South Korea internet giant Naver, on Thursday unveiled its in-vehicle infotainment platform Away, marking a new step forward for its connected car technology business.　Naver plans to deploy its new infotainment platform and dependent display device in 1,000 vehicles operated by Lotte-owned car-sharing company Green Car by the end of this year, with aims to expand this number to 3,000 vehicles.In-vehicle infotainment refers to a coll

South Korean drugmaker Dong-A Pharmaceutical has set out to raise the appeal of its consumer products by introducing art into its marketing scheme.Dong-A Pharmaceutical has adopted a new packaging design for its drugs and female hygiene goods — imprinting the works of world-famous artists on the covers of its product.Tempo (Dong-A Pharmaceutical)For instance, Dong-A’s tampon brand Tempo features Claude Monet’s famed oil painting “Water Lillies” on the cover in a move to express the warmth and pu

Lee Hae-jin, the founder of South Korean internet giant Naver, has visited the Fair Trade Commission to seek an “ownerless” status designation for the company, as it is set to obtain “large corporation” status and become subject to new antitrust regulations.Lee, Naver’s Chief Financial Officer Park Sang-jin and its head of legal affairs and compliance support, Jeong Yeon-ah, visited officials at the FTC headquarters, including its Chairperson Kim Sang-jo, earlier this week to discuss Naver’s imm

Hwang Woo-suk, a South Korean stem cell scientist who caused a major stir in the scientific community for academic fraud in 2005, has recently lost a legal battle over the rights to a technique critical to re-creating the woolly mammoth.According to local reports Tuesday, Hwang had filed a criminal complaint against Park Se-pil of Jeju National University and his research colleagues, accusing them of embezzlement and attempted blackmail.However, the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutor’s Office sai

South Korea’s PC cafe owners have accused Blizzard Entertainment of breaching the local antitrust law by introducing a new fee system for “Starcraft: Remastered,” a high-definition remake of the firm’s smash-hit PC strategy game “Starcraft.”The Internet PC Culture Association, which represents local internet PC cafes where people play online games, also known as “PC bangs” here, said Monday that it had petitioned the Korea Fair Trade Commission to investigate Blizzard for unfairly charging them

A South Korean company has officially launched “Pororo Friends,” a new augmented reality mobile game for children based on the characters of the global animation series “Pororo the Little Penguin.”　The children’s mobile game, now available on the Google Play app store, was developed by SocialNetwork Co., a local startup specializing in AR technology, in partnership with the producer of the Pororo series Iconix Entertainment. The Seoul-based ESA is the game’s publisher.SocialNetwork Co. began dev

US biopharmaceutical company Biogen has officially established a new South Korean branch to take charge of the firm’s business here, according to news reports Sunday.Biogen Korea LLC was registered as a new company in Korea on July 14, according to state-issued corporate registration documents open to the public.Its purpose of establishment includes the development, production, manufacturing, import and export of finished drugs and pharmaceutical products, similar to other global pharmaceutical

Instagram, a photo-sharing app owned by US social networking giant Facebook, topped 10 million users in South Korea as of this month.Facebook Korea said Thursday that the number of monthly active users on Instagram surpassed 10 million as of August. Monthly active users refer to app users who log into the app more than once per month.Instagram was launched in Korea in December 2012. The photo-sharing app has since grown rapidly here, topping 6 million users as of March 2016. Globally, Instagram

South Korean mobile messaging giant Kakao said Thursday that it recorded its highest quarterly revenue to date in the second quarter, led by a hike in its advertising and content sales.　Kakao saw revenue of 468.4 billion won ($410.6 million) during the April-June period, marking a 24 percent jump on-year. During the same period, operating profit soared 68 percent on-year to 44.6 billion won. However, net profit came in at 12.5 billion won, down 6 percent on-year, due to increased operating expen