South Korean pharmaceutical company Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co. said Thursday that it has reached a license agreement with global drugmaker Sanofi to develop a portfolio of experimental, long-acting diabetes treatments, valued at up to 3.9 billion euros (US$4.2 billion).Under the agreement, Hanmi will receive an upfront payment of 400 million euros and is also eligible for up to 3.5 billion euros in development, registration and sales milestones, as well as double-digit royalties on net sales. The

The military is envisioning the deployment of combat marine forces on the island of Ulleung in the East Sea, a move that could add military pressure on North Korea and enhance the defense of the easternmost islets of Dokdo, a military official said Thursday.If the deployment vision is put into action, it could form a U-shaped coastal defense system linking the group of islands near the inter-Korean border in the Yellow Sea and the southern resort island of Jeju to Ulleung, located about midway a

The third hearing of a multi-billion-dollar case the U.S. private equity firm Lone Star filed against South Korea over its asset sell-offs will be held in The Hague in January, the Justice Ministry here said Thursday.Lone Star and the South Korean government will counter each other at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in the Netherlands from Jan. 5-8 over the equity fund's 2003 purchase of a controlling stake in Korea Exchange (KEB) and its sell-off, the mini

The level of market liberalization of the recently signed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is similar to the free trade pact reached between South Korea and the United States, although more time is needed to determine what impact it will have on Asia's fourth largest economy, the government said Thursday.The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said that the text of the agreement reached between 12 Asia-Pacific countries early last month has to be checked in detail, and claimed there were no bi

An appeals court on Thursday ruled against South Korean iPhone users who filed a damages suit against Apple Inc. for collecting their location information without their consent.The Busan High Court, upholding a lower court's ruling, dismissed the complaint filed against the U.S.-based tech firm and its local unit, Apple Korea, seeking 1 million won (US$879) each in compensation, saying there was no leakage of private data.While acknowledging the illegality of Apple's collection of data, the cour