South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety is looking to push forth this year a set of new regulations governing the safety of food and drug imports, the medical use and distribution of sedative drugs and compensation for side effects caused by pharmaceutical products.The ministry said that it officially reported the details of its 2017 agenda to Prime Minister and acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn at Sejong City on Monday.In terms of imported foods and pharmaceutical products, the ministry wil

LG Electronics’ newly-appointed CEO Jo Seong-jin said Sunday that the South Korean electronics maker will finalize its decision on setting up its first home appliance manufacturing plant in the US within the first half of this year.　“We’ve been considering the possibility of building a new plant in the US for a long time,” Jo said during a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.“The company expects to reach a final decision on this issue within the early half of this year

In search of new partnerships, foreign investment and promotional opportunities, South Korea’s top biopharmaceutical companies will partake in the 35th J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, which kicks off Monday in San Francisco.　The annual four-day event is the world’s largest and oldest health care symposium. It brings together the world's leading pharmaceutical companies and investors to discuss the latest industry trends and seek out new drug candidates and technologies.(123RF)In Korea, the co

South Korean pharmaceutical companies are looking to cash in on the growing popularity of “aesthetic injections” triggered by revelations that they were regularly used by President Park Geun-hye who is currently facing her impeachment trial.According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, a total of eight “nutrient injections” were granted sales approval over the course of three days from Monday to Wednesday. This makes up around 44 percent of the 18 pharmaceutical products approved by the min

South Korea’s leading chemicals maker LG Chem is out to boost its newly merged pharmaceutical unit LG Life Sciences, with aims to drive up its competitiveness in the global red biotechnology, or medical biotech, sector.LG Chem Vice Chairman and CEO Park Jin-soo visited LG Life Sciences’ production plant in Iksan, North Jeolla Province on Thursday, marking his first official on-site visit for 2017.The plant produces LG Life Sciences’ flagship pharmaceutical products including “Factive,” a next-ge

Samsung SDS, the information technology solutions unit of Samsung Group, said Thursday it will unveil a new security solution for smartwatches at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.　Samsung SDS will debut its “Enterprise Mobility Management” solution, designed for application to wearables running on Samsung’s Tizen operating system, at the US-based tech event.　The Samsung SDS EMM for Wearables is a cloud-based security solution designed for use by companies that want to secure

South Korean internet giant Naver said Wednesday that its mobile video messaging app Snow has attracted more than 100 million users worldwide as of December.Released in September 2015, Snow is a mobile messaging app that lets users exchange video messages and photos with other users. It offers a range of camera filters that add shining eyes, bunny ears, funny masks and other elements to selfies and videos.Snow surpassed the 100 million user mark as of mid-December 2016, just 15 months after its

South Korea’s Hanmi Pharmaceutical said Wednesday it will launch its dual-action drug for hyperlipidemia, Rosuzet, across global markets in partnership with US pharmaceutical giant Merck Sharp & Dohme.　The two have newly entered a licensing partnership under which MSD will take charge of selling Hanmi’s Rosuzet across 23 countries, excluding Korea. Hanmi said it could not specify the given countries due to contract stipulations. Hanmi Pharmaceutical's Rosuzet (Hanmi Pharmaceutical)Rosuzet is a d

South Korean biopharma company Green Cross has taken the lead in the global chickenpox vaccine market by winning a major order from the Pan American Health Organization.　Green Cross said Tuesday that it has secured a $60 million order to supply its varicella -- the virus that causes chickenpox -- vaccine, to PAHO from 2017-2018. This amounts to around 66 percent of the agency’s total varicella vaccine procurement quota.Under the new contract, the Korean drugmaker will export its varicella vaccin

Kakao, the operator of South Korea’s top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, opened Tuesday a new crowdfunding platform to support local content creators and their work.　　The new platform, called “People Funding,” is the latest in a series of crowdfunding projects introduced by Kakao over the past two years, including “Story Funding” and “Heart Funding.”　Story Funding, which was introduced in 2015, focuses on financing a particular story or project. However, People Funding aims to provide more support f

SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho, chief of South Korea’s largest mobile carrier, pledged to make SKT the country’s representative information and communication technology firm to lead the fourth industrial revolution.　“The fourth industrial revolution will eliminate borders and divisions between business sectors, ushering in global competition” Park said.“We must break out of the current paradigm and devise a new business model so that we can achieve growth on a global scale,” he said, vowing to expa

KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu has called for South Korea’s second-largest mobile carrier to move beyond its flagship telecom business and become a platform company based on intelligent network technologies.“KT’s goal should not be to become Korea’s No. 1 telecom company but to become a platform company with intelligent network technologies,” Hwang said during his New Year’s speech.“We should not aim to become the No. 1 leader in the IPTV market, but become a strong media platform company that can

Unicity Korea, the local branch of US-based direct sales company Unicity International, has officially introduced its new multivitamin product “Core Health Pack” in South Korea.　Unicity’s “Core Health Pack” consists of packs of dietary supplements which are divided into morning and night formulas. Each serving is packaged separately for easy storage and portability. Unicity's Core Health Pack (Unicity Korea)The morning formula, designed to give an energy boost throughout the day, includes 13 vit

South Korea’s CJ Group vowed to actively pursue new strategic mergers and acquisitions in 2017 to strengthen its core businesses and to boost their global competitiveness.“Despite the continued economic downturn and unstable market conditions, I ask all our employees to make this a historic year in the future growth of the company,” said CJ Group Chairman Sohn Kyoung-shik.  CJ Group Chairman Sohn Kyoung-shik (CJ Group)Sohn urged CJ to pursue strategic M&A’s to expand its main businesses -- food,

After a year of political unrest, public fury at problematic state-business ties and a prolonged economic downturn, the chiefs of South Korea’s major business groups called upon businesses to “return to the fundamentals” in 2017.“Korean businesses recently became a center of controversy, disappointing the public,” said Park Yong-maan, Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the country’s largest business association, in his New Year’s speech.“We will work to foster stricter stand