South Korean biotechnology company Celltrion said Wednesday that the company‘s breast cancer drug Herzuma reached a market share of 44 percent in Japan last year. Herzuma is a biosimilar of Roche’s blockbuster breast cancer drug Herceptin (trastuzumab), used in treating patients with certain breast and gastric cancers. In the third quarter of 2019, the market share of Herzuma in Japan was just 2 percent, but the figure jumped to 12 percent in the following quarter. Herzuma&rsqu

The South Korean government announced that it would spend 595 billion won ($525.6 million) by 2030 to support the country’s regenerative medicine sector. According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, the program will start in July this year, focused on supporting the overall research and development of regenerative medicines, exploration of related business opportunities and out-licensing of technologies. The goal is to help local firms develop at least four new regenerative medicines

SUWON, Gyeonggi Province -- Around 900 shareholders of Samsung Electronics gathered at a convention center in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on Wednesday to attend their 52nd annual meeting. The number of attendees more than doubled from last year, when fears of the COVID-19 pandemic hit especially hard. Samsung has hosted the shareholders meeting at the 2,000-seat Suwon Convention Center since last year. Previous meetings held at its headquarters building in Seocho-gu, southern Seoul, were ove

Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to defend its top status in the global smartphone market this year despite challenges from Chinese brands, a report showed Wednesday. Worldwide smartphone shipments are forecast to grow 6.5 percent on-year to 1.38 billion units in 2021, and Samsung's market share is estimated at 20 percent, unchanged from a year earlier, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics. US tech titan Apple Inc. is projected to remain second, with its market share also stayi

Tizen, a Linux-based operating system developed by Samsung Electronics Co., was the top smart TV streaming platform last year, a report showed Wednesday, thanks to its status as the world's largest TV vendor. Tizen accounted for 12.7 percent of global connected TV devices in use in 2020, up from 11.6 percent a year earlier, after the number of Tizen-supporting devices increase 21 percent on-year to 162.3 million, according to industry tracker Strategy Analytics. Samsung's TV platform was follo

South Korea's telecommunications regulator said Wednesday it will push for a law revision to set limits on user payments to livestream broadcasters amid reports of financial damage to users that splurge on the platforms. Many video streaming platforms, including YouTube and local rival Afreeca TV, operate live payments, in which viewers can tip broadcasters in real time, serving as a form of monetization. The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said it will pursue legal revisions to prevent

Unionized employees at Samsung Electronics' semiconductor business protest against a 2.5 percent raise in annual salaries in the lobby of the company's headquarters in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, on Tuesday. (Blind)

South Korea’s data industry grew 14 percent to 19 trillion won ($16.81 billion) last year, according to government data on Tuesday. According to a report from the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Data Agency, the number of professionals in the data industry surpassed 100,000 for the first time. The report said the local data industry had expanded from 16.8 trillion won in 2019 to 19.2 trillion won last year. This figure takes local companies’ sales into account, as well

Hyosung Advanced Materials, the South Korea-based industrial materials producer, said Tuesday that the company would supply its airbags for an Amazon-backed self-driving car. According to Hyosung Advanced Materials, the company’s airbag development unit Global Safety Textiles signed a supply contract with Zoox, the robotaxi company acquired by Amazon for more than $1 billion earlier last year. Under the contract, GST will supply its one-piece woven airbag to Zoox, which is developing

Choi Hyoung-jin, a researcher at Samsung Research, the research and development arm of Samsung Electronics, was named to head a global research body on the sixth-generation telecommunications network, the tech giant said Tuesday. Choi has been appointed as chair of Vision Group on IMT towards 2030 and beyond (6G) at the International Telecommunication Union -- Radiocommunication during an online assembly held from March 1-12. The 6G Vision Group was launched at the recent ITU-R meeting.

Samsung Display said Tuesday that it has supplied for the first time its organic light-emitting diode displays for Asus’ newest gaming smartphone ROG Phone 5. The Taiwanese computer hardware company’s latest ROG Phone 5 sports the Korean panel maker‘s 6.78-inch OLED screen, which is designed to support seamless streaming of fast-rate high-resolution gaming content. Samsung’s mobile display that supports over a 120 Hz refresh rate has been certified as a Seamless Dis

The South Korean unit of Google Inc. has decided to lower its planned commission rate for app developers, parliamentary and industry sources said Monday, amid complaints from software makers over steep fees. Google Korea reported to parliament's committee on science and technology that it will cut the 30 percent rate on in-app purchases to 15 percent for app developers whose annual sales generated from its Play store are less than US$1 million, according to the sources. The new policy will take

With de-facto chief Lee Jae-yong in jail, drama appears to be brewing ahead of Samsung Electronics’ upcoming general shareholders meeting, amid growing calls for improved checks and balances within its corporate governance system. In a new blow to the current management led by the jailed executive vice chairman and son of the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, a proxy adviser recommended voting against the reappointment of three outside directors. But the National Pension Service, the

Samsung Bioepis said Monday that the company has signed a marketing partnership with Yuhan to launch its adalimumab biosimilar Adalloce. Adalloce is a pen type biosimilar of Humira, used in treating active autoimmune and inflammatory conditions such as rheumatism, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. The drug was launched as Imraldi in European countries in 2018 and posted a cumulative $417 million in sales as of last year. In South Korea, Samsung Bioepis will launch the adalimumab bi

Active users of video streaming apps by Netflix Inc. on their mobile devices topped 10 million in South Korea last month, more than doubling from the start of last year, data showed Monday. The video streaming platform recorded 10.01 million Android and iOS users in the country in February, compared with 4.7 million in January last year, according to mobile data tracker IGAWorks. Monthly active users refer to unique users who interacted with a service at least once a month. Netflix was the mo