South Korean biotech firm ABL Bio said Thursday that it has begun the phase 1 clinical trial of anticancer drug candidate ABL501. ABL501 is an antibody that uses the Grabody-I platform technology to block both the PD-L1 and LAG-3 checkpoint pathways, improving the current limitation in PD-L1 therapies. ABL Bio said the company has administered the drug candidate to the first patient with a solid tumor at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul. An official from ABL Bio said the phase 1 clinical tria

South Korean drugmaker SK Bioscience announced Wednesday the company has updated its capacity reservation contract with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. Under the new agreement, CEPI can use part of SK Bioscience’s Andong production facility until 2022 for manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines. 　 SK Bioscience’s factory in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, currently has a total of nine production lines that can produce drug substances for COVID-19 vaccines. Of the to

Samsung Electronics and its unions held their first wage talks Tuesday at the company’s plant in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, industry sources said. Samsung‘s management and the unions will continue their negotiations in the following weeks to decide changes to union members’ terms of employment. Unionized workers have demanded a uniform raise in salary by 10 million won ($8,400), plus cash and stock bonuses worth 4.5 million won in total. The union also requests managemen

Sales at local convenience stores continued to increase despite economic setbacks from COVID-19, government data showed Monday. The convenience store sector was the only retail sector that continued to post growth during the first eight months of this year, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy added. During the January-August period, sales at convenience stores increased by 6 percent on average from a year earlier. The trend was especially strong in March and April, when the respective

The country‘s largest food delivery firm Baedal Minjok has been selected as the least accessible and friendly application for older people and those with disabilities, a local lawmaker said Monday. According to lawmaker Yang Jeong-suk, who quoted the Ministry of Science and ICT’s report, Baemin ranked at the bottom among the top 300 most-downloaded apps that the ministry reviewed. The 300 apps were evenly split -- with a half available for Apple and the other half for Android. The

Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology announced Thursday that a domestically developed HIV medicine has recently received regulatory approval for commercialization in China. This new medicine was first developed by a local research team as part of a project started in 1995, supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT. In 2006, US pharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences joined the project and co-developed a treatment candidate in 2008. The technology was sold to local biotech firm Kain

LG Electronics said Thursday that it has been supporting a Russian museum’s project to conserve Vincent Van Gogh‘s masterpiece “The Red Vineyard in Arles.” The company has been providing financial support, as well as equipment, to the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow for the project which began in August. “The Red Vineyard in Arles” is a work from Van Gogh’s stay in Arles in 1888 and 1889, one of the painter’s most prolific periods.

Drugmaker Chong Kun Dang said Thursday that it has received an approval from the Ministry of Health of Ukraine to conduct a phase 3 clinical trial of their COVID-19 treatment candidate, Nafabeltan. Ukraine is the first foreign country to authorize the final-stage trial of the South Korean pharmaceutical company’s self-developed COVID-19 treatment. In Korea, Chong Kun Dang received an approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in April. Ukraine is one of the seven foreign count

The South Korean government has confirmed Wednesday that it will launch the country’s first fully domestically developed satellite launch vehicle Nuri on Oct. 21 as scheduled. The Ministry of Science and ICT said the rocket, also known as Korean Space Launch Vehicle II, will blast off at 4 p.m. from the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province. The time, however, could be slightly changed in accordance with weather conditions, an official from the ministry said. The official

South Korean biopharmaceutical firm GC Pharma is in talks with Janssen  to sign a contract manufacturing deal for Janssen’s COVID-19 vaccine, according to industry sources Wednesday. The sources said Janssen conducted a site inspection of GC Pharma’s drug manufacturing facility in Ochang, North Chungcheong Province, this month. The inspection was said to have gone without any particular issues. GC Pharma, however, has remained silent on rumors of a potential deal with the ph

A local research team has developed a new snakeskin-like structure that contains battery cells, which can be potentially applied to soft robots and a wide range of wearable devices. The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials said Tuesday that a research team led by Jang Bong-kyun and Hyun Seung-min developed the material, inspired by the flexibility and structure of snake scales, that can be shaped without damaging rigid battery cells. The research team said the structure, which contains

South Korea’s 5G users increased by millions this year, but 5G network base stations are still being rolled out slowly, a local agency said Monday. According to data compiled by the Korea Communications Agency, the number of 5G users increased by 1.99 million during the second quarter this year to reach 17 million, up 13.7 percent on-year. As of June, 5G users accounted for 23.8 percent of the total mobile network users here. The number of 4G and 3G network users reached 50.5 million a

Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Steel announced Monday that they had developed a new wastewater recycling technology that would allow sludge from the chip manufacturing process to be reused for steelmaking. Their joint research found that calcium fluoride in the sludge was similar to fluorite, a material used in steelmaking to reduce melting temperatures and remove impurities. Hyundai Steel said it expected the deal to help the company save on costs, since South Korean steelmakers rely entirel

South Korea’s leading battery maker LG Energy Solution announced Friday that the company and UC San Diego have co-developed a new solid-state battery that is safer and more durable than existing ones. The research results have been published in Science, one of the top peer-reviewed academic journals, the company added. According to LG Energy Solution, the new solid-state battery, which uses both a solid state electrolyte and an all-silicon anode, has shown positive results during initi

Celltrion announced Thursday that it had won a contract to supply its rapid COVID-19 test DiaTrust to the US government. Starting Oct. 1, Celltrion USA, Celltrion’s US-based unit, will begin supplying COVID-19 tests to 25,000 sites, including military facilities, nursing homes and COVID-19 test centers. Under the deal signed with the US Defense Logistics Agency, the US authorities could buy more if needed. Celltrion said the total amount could reach 738.2 billion won ($626.61 million),