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 13th installment. - Ed.Seeking to overturn the traditional hospital-led medical recordkeeping system, a South Korean technology startup has set out to create a new patient-centered health database platform using blockchain technology.Medical recordkeeping has long operated as a closed system, with individ

South Korea’s Samsung Bioepis said Monday that its biosimilar referencing Roche’s Herceptin has been approved for sale in Europe, marking the first cheaper copy of the blockbuster breast cancer therapy to win regulatory approval in the region.　　The European Commission granted marketing approval for Ontruzant, Samsung’s Herceptin biosimilar, for the treatment of early breast cancer, metastatic breast cancer and metastatic gastric cancer.　With the approval, Ontruzant can now be sold in all of the

Posco said Friday that it would donate 1.5 billion won ($1.37 million) toward ongoing relief operations in the South Korean city of Pohang, which was hit by a magnitude 5.4 earthquake on Wednesday.The Posco headquarters, the Posco Foundation and Posco’s subsidiaries will each provide 500 million won to the charity organization Community Chest of Korea’s North Gyeongsang Province office.Subsidiaries taking part in the donation include Posco E&C, Posco ICT, Posco Chemtech and Posco C&C. (POSCO)The

MEMORIAL FOR SAMSUNG FOUNDER -- Cars presumed to be occupied by members of the Samsung Group’s owner family are seen near Hoam Art Museum in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on Friday, when the 30th memorial ceremony for the late Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull took place. As Samsung’s de facto chief Lee Jae-yong remains jailed for corruption, the commemorative event took place with the smallest number of participants this year. (Yonhap)

Online video games have been slowly losing ground in the increasingly mobile-driven gaming sector, but they made a colorful return to the spotlight at South Korea’s biggest game convention G-Star this week.　At the G-Star 2017 that kicked off in Busan on Thursday, hundreds of visitors have been lining up to check out newly showcased PC online games such as Nexon’s “FIFA Online 4,” while cheering on professional gamers at live esports tournaments.Unlike last year, when virtual reality and mobile g

Online shooting game “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” developed by South Korea’s Bluehole Studio won the grand prize at the 2017 Korea Game Awards on Wednesday, marking a milestone for the PC online game industry that has been struggling against mobile games.　“Battlegrounds” also swept five additional awards, including the technology innovation award, the best developer award, the game business innovation award and the most popular game award.PUBG Corp. CEO Kim Chang-han (Bluehole Studio)Develope

The International Vaccine Institute, a Seoul-headquartered international nonprofit organization devoted to developing and supplying new vaccines to underdeveloped countries, is preparing to introduce a new typhoid vaccine by 2021.After the successful deployment of the world’s first oral cholera vaccines, the IVI is now working to develop and commercialize a vaccine that prevents typhoid fever in partnership with South Korea’s SK Chemicals, according to IVI Director General Jerome Kim.“Thanks to

Global gaming convention G-Star kicks off in Busan on Thursday, showcasing new releases by mobile and PC game makers and hosting a number of esports competitions for popular games.　G-Star 2017 is featuring more than 2,700 booths and bringing together some 650 game companies from 30 countries. Nexon is the event’s main sponsor this year, hosting 300 booths at the venue.　Unlike last year’s edition, where virtual reality and mobile games took center stage, this year’s G-Star is hosting many live ga

GE Healthcare Korea said Monday that it has appointed Francis Van Parys, a veteran marketing and sales expert at GE’s businesses, as its new CEO and president, replacing the outgoing CEO Sia Moussavi.Van Parys has spent 16 years at GE’s health care, life sciences and industrial solutions businesses, serving in senior positions such as the general manager of commercial operations and general manager of product management for life sciences, the company said. GE Healthcare Korea CEO Francis Van Par

South Korean authorities and the local carpooling service industry have recently locked horns over the legality of operating the service around the clock, revealing a disparity between vision and reality in the the new administration’s push to realise its “shared economy” mantra.　Last week, the Seoul Metropolitan Government asked the police to investigate Poolus, a Seoul-based ride-sharing app operator, for breaching local transportation laws after the company began offering its services at any

As cloud computing grows in stature as the future of corporate IT, firms face the choice between low-cost public clouds and their own private clouds, which can offer more security and control.Increasingly, however, firms are looking to take advantage of both, and US virtualization and cloud computing specialist VMware is looking to help its Korean clients adopt such hybrid clouds. Essentially, cloud computing performs its functions -- storing and accessing data, apps and programs -- on the inter

Kakao, the firm behind South Korea’s most widely-used mobile messenger KakaoTalk, will ramp up efforts to build a new business ecosystem built on artificial intelligence, its chief executive said Thursday.　“We view AI as not a passing trend but a foundational part of technology and infrastructure,” Kakao CEO Jimmy Rim said during the firm’s third-quarter earnings call.“The fundamental value of KakaoTalk is communication,” he said. “Through our AI engine Kakao I, people will be able to chat via v

Naver, the operator of South Korea’s largest portal website and online search engine, has officially called on Google to openly discuss its practices and activities in the Korean market, raising the stakes in an escalating war of words between the two internet giants.Naver CEO Han Seong-sook on Thursday released a lengthy statement laying out point-by-point the company’s stance on a number of issues it had raised against its rival Google including taxes, employment, traffic costs and search and

South Korean drug regulators have approved Samsung Bioepis’ biosimilar drug referencing Roche’s Herceptin, marking the first cancer-fighting biosimilar to be sold by the Songdo-based drugmaker.Samsung Bioepis announced Thursday that the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has granted its marketing approval for Samfenet, its biosimilar referencing Roche’s breast cancer treatment Herceptin (trastuzumab).Samfenet was approved in Korea for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, early-stage b

Kolon Life Science has begun selling Invossa, a novel cell-mediated therapy for degenerative arthritis, in South Korea, with the first patient injection taking place Wednesday, the company said.　Invossa is the world’s first gene therapy for treating osteoarthritis of the knee, in which the cartilage that cushions the joints wears away, causing the bones to rub together and induce pain.A single injection of the drug delivers therapeutic relief for up to two years, according to the firm. It was de

Intuitive Surgical, the world’s top surgical robot maker best known for its da Vinci surgical robot system, opened a new surgical innovation and training center in South Korea on Tuesday. Located inside the Sangam DMC High-Tech Industry Center in northeastern Seoul, the 3,624-square-meter facility features five training stations equipped with seven da Vinci systems and lecture rooms with audiovisual equipment for hosting live video meetingsIt also provides two open demo rooms where anyone, inclu

Celltrion said Tuesday that it will present new data in the US showing that its biosimilar drug Truxima is comparable to Roche’s Rituxan in terms of efficacy, pharmacodynamics and safety, citing the conditions of rheumatoid arthritis patients who have switched to Truxima in place of the reference drug.　The clinical findings will be presented at the 2017 American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, on Tuesday, local time.A total of 295 patients participated in the ext

Shares of TissueGene, the US-based biopharmaceutical subsidiary of South Korea’s Kolon Group, officially began trading on the Kodaq Monday. They opened at 52,000 won ($47), up 92.6 percent from the initial offering price of 27,000 won.　After trading began, however, the firm’s shares plunged by as much as 19 percent from the opening price, before closing at 42,700 won, down 17.88 percent.Despite the drop, the shares still stood well above their initial offering price of 27,000 won. TissueGene’s m

CJ Group is looking to sell off its pharmaceutical unit CJ Healthcare in what market watchers perceive is a strategic move to part with less-profitable businesses and concentrate investment into more promising sectors.CJ CheilJedang, which owns a 100 percent stake in CJ Healthcare, announced Friday that it is “internally reviewing plans to sell its shares in CJ Healthcare, but nothing has been decided in detail yet.”The disclosure came following local news reports that CJ Group was preparing to

- 엘러간, ‘가능한 선에서 가장 빠른 시일 내로 이노톡스 3상 시작할 것’- 메디톡스의 제품 생산이 계획대로 진행 된다면 3상 시작 시기는 2018년 중 예측- 엘러간 약 1년만에 처음 공식 입장 제공(코리아헤럴드=손지영 기자) 다국적제약사 엘러간(Allergan)이 메디톡스의 액상형 보톡스 ‘이노톡스’의 임상 3상을 ‘가능한 선에서 가장 빠른 시일 내로 시작할 것’이라는 공식 입장을 밝혔다. 메디톡스의 제품 생산이 계획대로 진행 된다면 3상 시작 시기는 2018년 중이 될 것으로 보인다.그간 ‘이노톡스’ 임상 계획 및 메디톡스와의 협력관계에 대해 침묵했던 엘러간이 약 1년만에 처음 공식 입장을 내놓은 것이다. 엘러간 본사는 “양사는 국내에선 이노톡스로 알려진 MT10109L의 임상 시작을 위해 최대 노력하고 있다’며 “메디톡스가 3상을 위한 임상용 제품을 계획대로 2018년에 제공한다면 엘러간은 임상 3상을 가능한 선에서 가장 빠른 시일 내로 시작할 것” 이라고 코리아헤럴드에 밝