Johnson & Johnson said Thursday its partnership with Hanmi Pharmaceutical over a novel diabetes drug licensed out by the South Korean drugmaker “remains strong,” seeking to ease concerns over the drug’s halted clinical trials in the US.According to the US National Institutes of Health’s ClinicalTrials.gov, J&J’s subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutical had “suspended participant recruitment” for phase 1 clinical trials of JNJ-64565111.The Hanmi Pharmaceutical headquarters in southeastern Seoul(The Kore

South Korean game developer NCSoft officially released its new mobile role-playing game “Lineage Red Knights” in 12 countries on Thursday, aiming to capture longtime fans of the original “Lineage” online game as well as new mobile gamers.The new mobile RPG is based on “Lineage,” a pioneering multiplayer online role-playing game introduced in 1998 that rocketed NCSoft to stardom and made the firm one of Korea’s biggest game developers.“Lineage Red Knights” is the first ever mobile RPG introduced

Toss, a simplified mobile money transfer app developed by South Korean fintech startup Viva Republica, won the top prize at this year’s Google Play App Awards for the Korean market.　Every year, Google’s mobile app store operator recognizes outstanding apps in various categories ranging from lifestyle and commerce to finance and games. Google Korea holds the 2016 Google Play App Awards in Seoul on Tuesday evening. (Google Korea)Among the 34 games and 40 other apps selected by Korea’s Google Play

Shares of Hanmi Pharmaceutical plunged 10.76 percent to close at 311,000 won ($266.30) Wednesday, following news its partner Janssen had stopped recruiting participants for the clinical trials of a new diabetes drug licensed out by the South Korean drugmaker last year.The news came just months after Boehringer Ingelheim terminated a $730 million licensing deal it had entered with Hanmi over a new lung cancer therapy back in July 2015 after patient safety issues emerged, igniting fresh fears amon

LG CNS, the IT solutions unit of LG Group, said Tuesday that its cumulative export volume has surpassed $200 million, led by its success in deploying its flagship e-government system technologies to countries around the world.E-government, which stands for “electronic government,” refers to the use of information and communications technologies to improve the activities of public sector organizations, including those in the tax, real estate and administrative services.LG CNS said that it has sco

Google launched YouTube Red, a new ad-free subscription service for its flagship video-sharing platform YouTube, in South Korea on Tuesday, offering a range of exclusive viewing options for paying subscribers.Available at 7,900 won ($6.75) a month, YouTube Red lets users watch ad-free videos, save and access videos in offline settings and continue playing videos in the background while other apps are running or the screen is turned off on a mobile phone. Subscribers also gain access to new video

Kakao, the operator of South Korea’s top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, on Monday said its contents business unit Podotree has secured a 125 billion won ($106.6 million) investment from a consortium led by Anchor Equity Partners.Established in 2010, Podotree is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kakao which operates the Korean mobile giant’s two contents platforms — Daum Webtoon and Kakao Page.(Kakao)Under the investment deal, Podotree will issue new common shares which will be purchased by the Asian pri

US pharmaceutical giant Amgen has become the first company to seek regulatory approval to sell an Avastin biosimilar in Europe, taking the lead in the race to introduce cheaper replicas of the blockbuster cancer treatment. 　Amgen and its partner Allergan announced Saturday that they have submitted ABP 215, a biosimilar referencing Roche’s Avastin (becacizumab) to the European Medicines Agency.“The companies believe this submission is the first becacizumab biosimilar application submitted to the

South Korean youths in their 20s and early 30s are less inclined to start their own businesses and become entrepreneurs compared to their counterparts elsewhere, a global report by Amway said Sunday.According to the 2016 Amway Global Entrepreneurship Report covering 45 countries and more than 50,000 men and women, Korean youths, aged 35 and below, scored 49 points in terms of “entrepreneurial spirit.” (123RF)Amway’s entrepreneurial spirit index measures a person’s intention to start a business a

Merging technology with social activism, South Korean developers have rolled out a series of new mobile apps to support citizens who are taking to the streets of Seoul to demand President Park Geun-hye’s resignation.　As the weekly demonstrations continue to widen, multiple mobile apps designed for easy use by rally participants have appeared on the Google Play and Apple app stores. 　Apps that display a virtual candlelight on a smartphone screen are by far the most widely downloaded app among loc

South Korea’s agricultural and fisheries exports have steadily increased during the 10 months of this year, led by a recovery in Japan-bound sales and successful marketing activities in China, the Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corp., or aT, said Thursday.Korean agricultural and fisheries exports in the January-October period rose 5.9 percent on-year to $7 billion, according to the state-run agency, which promotes local agro-fisheries products.By category, exports of fresh food rose 6.7 per

South Korean biopharma company Green Cross said Wednesday that the US Food and Drug Administration has completed its review of the firm’s immunodeficiency drug that was filed for approval in January.　Green Cross had submitted its biologics license application for IVIG-SN -- human normal immunoglobulin G for intravenous administration -- on Jan. 22.　After a yearlong review, the US FDA has asked Green Cross to submit additional data related to the drug’s production. The US drug regulator was satis

A South Korean tech solution company unveiled a new facial biometric authentication service solution for smartphones on Wednesday, offering mobile app developers and interested companies a simpler and more cost-effective face identification system.The new solution, called BioCA, was jointly developed by the Korea Trade Network (KTNET), a subsidiary of the Korea International Trade Association in partnership with global biometrics company Daon and the Korea Smart Authentication Corp.　A log-in scr

South Korea’s leading mobile game company Netmarble Games has been sued for infringing intellectual property rights in its flagship mobile board game “Everybody’s Marble.”　Local game developer iPeoples Inc. said Wednesday that it has filed a lawsuit against Netmarble for copying several components of its mobile game “Blue Marble” and utilizing the game’s IP without due payments.iPeoples claims that Netmarble’s “Everybody’s Marble” released in 2013 features many of the same design elements and ga

The newly appointed CEO of South Korea’s leading portal operator Naver pledged to make Naver a tech-savvy platform that helps small businesses and local creators grow and flourish, at a conference in Seoul on Tuesday.　Han Seong-sook, the executive vice president of Naver’s services division, is slated to become the company’s first female chief executive, as the successor to CEO Kim Sang-hun, who recently resigned from his post at the year’s end.　Han reaffirmed Naver’s dedication to its ongoing “

Archigen Biotech Ltd., a 50-50 joint venture between Samsung BioLogics and UK-based AstraZeneca, has initiated the clinical trials for a new Rituxan biosimilar in South Korea, Samsung BioLogics said Tuesday.According to the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Archigen’s SAIT101 was granted approval to begin phase 1 and phase 3 clinical trials at eight local hospitals on Nov. 11. The trials in Korea are currently ongoing, the Samsung unit said.The Samsung BioLogics headquarters in Songdo, In

South Korean mobile carrier LG Uplus has partnered with leading Chinese telecommunications equipment provider Huawei to expand the emerging markets of Internet of Things-based devices and services in Korea.　The two companies jointly opened the “NB-IoT Open Lab” at the LG Uplus Sangam Center in northwestern Seoul on Monday. The lab will become a venue for local companies to design, assemble and test run new devices connected to the Narrow-Band Internet of Things, or NB-IoT, network.In a bid to en

BUSAN -- By strapping on a virtual reality headset at the G-Star 2016 game convention in Busan, South Korea, one can fight in outer space, pilot a plane or throw fire grenades at a fellow gamer in the digital realm. 　VR is a technology that completely immerses users in computer-generated worlds via a head-mounted display, transporting them out of the real world and into the virtual. 　It held a strong presence at this year’s G-Star, as the world’s leading makers of VR goggles and software such as

South Korean biopharma company Celltrion said Thursday that its Rituxan biosimilar has been granted sales approval by Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.　Celltrion’s Truxima is a biosimilar referencing Roche’s blockbuster lymphatic cancer treatment Rituxan (rituximab). Biosimilars refer to cheaper, near-replicas of biologic drugs that have lost patent protection.Celltrion's headquarters in Songdo, Incheon (Yonhap)Truxima, also known as CT-P10, has been approved for the treatment of Non-Hod

BUSAN — In the courtyard of the BEXCO exhibition center in Busan, Kakao’s beloved Ryan the lion, the Japanese humanoid robot Astro Boy and the warriors of Netmarble Games’ “Seven Knights” welcome visitors to the global gaming convention G-Star 2016 which kicked off Thursday.　　They have all climbed out of their animated worlds for one reason -- to promote their representative mobile games, one of the driving forces of this year’s G-Star alongside console games backed by virtual reality technology