Samsung Bioepis’ breast cancer treatment Ontruzant (trastuzumab) was launched in the US via local partner Merck, Thursday. Ontruzant references Roche’s blockbuster original Herceptin, which recorded annual global revenue of approximately 7.2 trillion won ($5.8 billion) in 2019. The US accounts for about 45 percent of Herceptin sales. Samsung Bioepis strategizes to sell Ontruzant at a 15 percent more affordable rate than Herceptin, as well as to offer doses of 150 milligrams and 4

China’s telecommuting market is anticipated to double in size this year due to the spread of COVID-19, opening new possibilities for Korean tech firms, the Korea International Trade Association’s Beijing office said Wednesday through a report. The Chinese telecommuting market is expected to reach 44.9 billion yuan ($6.3 billion) in 2020, about double that of 2019’s estimated 22.9 billion yuan and nearly four times 2018’s 11.7 billion yuan. This is due to the increased

The consumer market in Korea is experiencing a hiked interest for products that support deep sleeping, simultaneously with the increased sense of social unrest amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to Korea Ginseng Corp. on Monday, its health supplement pill Alpha Project Sleep Support’s revenue in March increased 32 percent compared to the month before. “It appears that the prolonged COVID-19 situation is disrupting sleep for many,” said Korea Ginseng Corp. “Whil

LG Display said Monday that its transparent organic light-emitting diode screen will debut through MBC broadcasting station’s general election ballot counting show slated for Wednesday. A transparent OLED is a next generation see-through screen that allows viewers to look beyond the panel even with the power turned on. LG Display and LG Electronics had commercialized the transparent OLEDs last year, but this is the first time the product will be revealed to the public through a TV show

  The unprecedented spread of the novel coronavirus in the past months has forced medical professionals to seek ways to minimize their contact with patients in testing while maximizing the scope of tracking the infection. Industry watchers say that the South Korean Health Ministry’s smartphone applications, for instance, are an applied form of rudimentary telemedicine by allowing people to self-test during quarantine to report their conditions to medical professionals. In Korea, wh

ULikeKorea, a livestock health care company, said Friday it has successfully detected early-stage bovine coronavirus in South Korea and Japan. Coronavirus is prevalent in animals, and few are lethal to humans and cause respiratory infections like the COVID-19, Middle East respiratory syndrome and severe acute respiratory syndrome. Coronaviruses are ribonucleic acid virus that are prone to mutation, and have the possibility of animal-to-human and human-to-animal infections, uLikeKorea CEO Kim

Samsung Biologics on Friday signed a binding letter of intent worth 440 billion won ($363 million) to manufacture US-based Vir’s COVID-19 treatment, starting 2021. It is the biggest single deal Samsung Biologics has taken since its 2016 initial public offering. Vir’s SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody (mAb) candidates VIR-7831 and VIR-7832 have demonstrated high potency in neutralizing the SARS-CoV-2 in live-virus cellular assays. The molecules were approved for fast-track developme

Shin Poong Pharm, the sudden and sole Korean beneficiary of the recent news of parasiticide ivermectin’s purported coronavirus-killing powers, is facing business uncertainties. The company’s uterine myoma treatment, a tablet of 5mg ulipristal acetate traded globally as Esmya, was found to have caused “serious liver injury” in a number of patients in Europe, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Esmya’s license is suspended in Europe until the Pharmac

South Korean scientists in Daegu have developed a diagnostic kit that will cut down the COVID-19 testing time from previous six hours to 20 minutes. This diagnostic agent has been transferred to a diagnostic kit maker called Mmonitor, whose website crashed due to heavy traffic as of 11 a.m., Thursday, upon the announcement by Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology. According to DGIST, its new diagnostic agent makes it possible to amplify genetic information of the coronavir

South Korea’s leading tech firms Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics reported better-than-expected operating profit for the first quarter of 2020, despite the sluggish economy on the back of the ongoing global virus pandemic. Samsung on Tuesday estimated a revenue of 55 trillion won ($45 billion) and operating profit of 6.4 trillion won, slightly above the stock market projections, while LG Electronics posted 14.9 trillion won revenue and 1.09 trillion won operating profit. While LG&

Ivermectin, a parasiticide, could be the next breakthrough solution to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to initial reports, but further tests must prove the efficacy of the drug in living organisms, experts say. Ivermectin became the center of attention after scientists from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia found that a single dose of the parasiticide could stop the replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus growing in a cell culture. Ivermectin effectively eradicated all genetic material of

Samsung Biologics said Monday it has signed a contract to develop PharmAbcine’s anti-cancer and angiogenesis material PMC-402. The South Korean firm will provide all-step CDO support from cell line development to clinical sample manufacturing and investigational new drug application, as well as produce preclinical and global clinical trial materials. PMC-402, according to PharmAbcine, helps normalize newly formed abnormal blood vessels that feed the growth of tumors, or the condition c

The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled trade in Korean personal health and hygiene products. According to the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Sunday, exports of hand sanitizers in March reached $5.69 million, a steep climb of more than 600 percent, or 12 times the volume, from the same month a year before. This one-month figure is equal to 84 percent of hand sanitizer exports for the whole of 2019. The spread of COVID-19 has led to explosive in international demand for Kore

Despite the ambivalent sentiments about COVID-19 vaccine development, South Korean biologics company Celltrion said it was determined to continue with the project. Celltrion on Thursday said it was now screening to select the most effective antibodies to neutralize the virus behind the pandemic with the Korea Centers for Disease Control. The company aims to finish the work in a couple of weeks, after which it will start mass production of the therapeutics for clinical studies while simultane

Danaher said Thursday it has launched Cytiva -- formerly GE Healthcare Life Sciences, which it acquired for $21.4 billion -- aiming to completely rebrand the biologics side of General Electric’s business. Cytiva’s projects, spanning from cell and gene therapies to protein research, biosimilar and novel biologics drug development, are highly in demand amid the COVID-19, according to the Cytiva CEO and president, Emmanuel Ligner. After the transition from GE Healthcare Life Science