South Korean internet giant Naver said Thursday that its operating profit in the first quarter of this year rose 13.2 percent on-year to 290.8 billion won ($257 million), led by strong advertisement sales and heightened transactions on its mobile and online platform services.　Naver’s revenue also went up 15.5 percent on-year to 1.82 trillion won in the January-March period. Its net profits rose 27.8 percent on-year to 210.9 million won during the given period.The Naver headquarters in Pangyo, Gy

South Korea’s Celltrion said Thursday it has selected Japanese drugmaker Nippon Kayaku to handle the sales of its Truxima, a biosimilar copy of Roche’s lymphatic cancer drug Rituxan, on the Japanese market. 　Celltrion Healthcare, the marketing and sales subsidiary of Celltrion, and Nippon Kayaku have signed a partnership under which the Japanese drugmaker will sell Truxima in Japan.Celltrion’s headquarters in Songdo, Incheon (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)Rituxan, also known as Mabthera, achiev

South Korea’s Celltrion said Wednesday that it has won all of its patent infringement suits involving Roche’s blockbuster breast cancer drug Herceptin in Korea, paving the way for the launch of Herzuma, its biosimilar copy of Herceptin, in the country by the year’s end.Roche had sued Celltrion Pharm, which handles the marketing and distribution of Celltrion’s products in Korea, for infringing its main formulation patent for Herceptin in Korea in October 2013. The Swiss pharmaceutical giant had a

Nexon will continue to commit to developing new digital games that push the boundaries of established game genres despite the risks, as the company sees innovation as an underpinning component of its future competitiveness, its chief executive said Tuesday.“We’re doing a lot of experimentation with new games that are pushing current genres or creating entirely new genres outside of Korea,” Nexon CEO and President Owen Mahoney said during an interview with the local press at this year’s Nexon Dev

Former US Ambassador Samantha Power is writing a memoir about her transition from writing a Pulitzer Prize-winning condemnation of foreign policy to becoming a leading public advocate for the government. Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishing, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that it had acquired Power's "The Education of an Idealist." A release date has not yet been determined. Former US Ambassador Samantha Power (AP-Yonhap)Before serving in the Obama administration, Power

South Korea said Tuesday it has decided to purchase two advanced early warning radars on incoming ballistic missiles as North Korea's threats have grown.The plan was approved at a regular meeting on arms procurement projects presided over by Defense Minister Han Min-koo, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Agency.It plans to import the radars in the project starting within this year. The headquarters of South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Agency. (Yonhap)The South Korean military

Samsung BioLogics, the contract drug manufacturing arm of South Korea’s Samsung Group, said Tuesday that its first quarter revenue this year grew 1.9 percent on-quarter to 107.6 billion won ($95.6 million) led by a rise in its product shipments.　 The Korean drug manufacturer raised 3.4 billion won in operating profit in the January-March period, swinging into the black from the previous quarter’s operating loss of 700 million won.  The Samsung BioLogics headquarters in Songdo, Incheon (Park Hyun

Philips Korea, the local branch of global health technology company Philips, said Tuesday that it was holding a CPR training session for all its employees as part of its efforts to raise public awareness of the life-saving procedure.　The Seoul-based company held the CPR training session for nearly 300 employees as part of Philips’ global efforts to help its employees better respond to sudden heart attacks.  (Philips Korea)Philips Korea employees will learn about the theory behind CPR, how to app

South Korea’s Netmarble Games began selling its shares to interested investors Tuesday as the company prepares to go public on Korea’s main bourse Kospi on May 12. The share sales will continue until Wednesday.The Korean mobile game giant is offering 16.95 million shares at 157,000 won ($138) apiece, which is at the top of the initially proposed price range. This pricing scheme would let Netmarble raise 2.66 trillion won and would set the firm’s market capitalization at around 13.3 trillion won.

IBM Korea, the local branch of the US-based tech giant, is betting its future on its cognitive computing and cloud service businesses as the world embraces a new age led by futuristic technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and blockchain.The US tech firm is seeking to expand the usage of Watson, its AI-powered cognitive data computing platform, in South Korea and become a strong cloud service provider to local firms with growing data storage and management demand.“L

South Korea’s Samsung Bioepis won the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval for its biosimilar copy of Johnson & Johnson’s Remicade on Saturday, becoming a new challenger to the sales of the pharmaceutical giant’s blockbuster autoimmune disease treatment in the US.　The US FDA has granted approval to Samsung’s Renflexis, a biosimilar referencing Remicade (infliximab). Akin to generics of chemical drugs, biosimilars refer to cheaper, near-replicas of live cell biologic drugs whose patents hav

Amid the fast-advancing Internet of Things technology, a new item has joined the list of smart things -- electronic bidet toilets.　South Korean mobile carrier LG Uplus and electronic bidet maker Kohler Novita on Sunday said they will introduce the country’s first-ever electronic bidet running on IoT technology next month.An electronic bidet is a high-tech toilet seat cover featuring functions such as a nozzle that sprays one’s bottom with warm water. It is controlled via a remote control attache