Merck, a global pharmaceuticals company with a corporate history spanning 350 years, has launched a student ambassadors campaign titled “Merck Young Supporters” in Korea, the company said Monday. The five-month program offers 16 selected university students the opportunity to develop their interests in life science industry issues and promote Merck’s brand image in the process, Merck said.  “Through the ‘Merck Young Supporters’ campaign, Merck is pioneeri

Industry June 24, 2019

Open innovation, a joint effort to discover and develop innovative ideas, has become a major mantra of most industries, with the bio sector firms being no exception in their search for novel drug candidates.Attention toward biotech and novel drugs has spiked particularly in South Korea after the government announcement in May to inject 4 trillion won ($3.36 billion) in the bio-health industry.Against such a backdrop, several global pharmaceutical firms in Korea are engaged in identifying and sup

Industry May 31, 2019

Samsung Bioepis announced on Monday that it has sealed a licensing agreement with C-Bridge Capital, its second Chinese partner, to expand its biosimilar market share in mainland China. The Korean firm had earlier signed a similar partnership deal with 3Sbio. Under the new agreement, C-Bridge’s newly established biopharmaceutical company AffaMed Therapeutics will collaborate with the Samsung unit for the clinical development, regulatory registration and commercialization of its drug candidates in

Industry Feb. 11, 2019

Samsung Bioepis’ Ontruzant, a breast cancer treatment biosimilar referencing Roche’s Herceptin, won US Food and Drug Administration approval Saturday, expanding the list of Herceptin successors in the US market to three.Ontruzant is the third FDA-approved biosimilar of Switzerland firm Roche’s blockbuster breast cancer antibody. Its FDA approval is preceded by Mylan’s Ogivri in December 2017, and Celltrion’s Herzuma in December 2018.The three firms’ biosimilars are expected to simultaneously hit

Industry Jan. 20, 2019

LAS VEGAS -- Despite China’s fast-growing presence in the global display business, South Korean display makers remain undisputed leaders when it comes to future innovation, according to the chief of Merck KGaA’s performance materials division on Wednesday.　“Indeed, China has been putting lots of emphasis on driving the growth of the display technology. But if you look at large companies, you can see that the Korean companies are still very strong in innovation,” CEO Kai Beckmann said in an inter

Technology Jan. 10, 2019

Korea aims to attract a total of 80 trillion won ($71.2 billion) of investment from both Korean and foreign companies to the nation’s free economic zones over the next decade by attracting Korean anchor companies and giving more benefits to new industries and service sectors, according to the government on Monday. Korean Free Economic Zones are specially designated areas created to improve the business and living environment for foreign-invested firms in Korea. Since the inauguration of an

Economy Nov. 5, 2018

Curevo, a Seattle-based a vaccine development company under South Korea’s GC Pharma, said Monday that it had received clearance from the US drug regulator to start phase one clinical trials for a next-generation shingles vaccine.　The US Food and Drug Administration has advanced the company’s Investigational New Drug application for CRV-101, a vaccine candidate for the treatment of herpes zoster, a viral disease commonly known as shingles. As a result, Curevo, along with the Seattle-based collabo

Industry Nov. 5, 2018

Global pharmaceutical companies operating in South Korea locally invested a combined 271 billion won ($242 million) in clinical research and development in 2017, marking a 5.9 percent increase in R&D funding from the previous year, according to the Korea Research-based Pharma Industry Association.　KRPIA is a business association consisting of the Korean units of 28 foreign pharma companies, including Allergan, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Bayer, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Pfize

Technology Sept. 20, 2018

South Korea has high potential to become a major part of the global biopharma business ecosystem with its openness for collaboration and swift clinical trial process, according to executives of major multinational pharma firms operating in Korea.　“High technology, good work ethics and talented people are making Korea a good breeding ground for collaboration,” Christophe Piganiol, president of Zuellig Pharma Korea, said during a roundtable discussion earlier this month co-organized by The Korea H

Industry July 24, 2018

German chemical and life sciences giant Merck KGaA has restructured its performance materials business with aims to strengthen its growth this year — a move that hints at Merck’s renewed attention to its key customers in the space including South Korean display makers Samsung and LG. 　Merck recently initiated a major restructuring of its performance materials business division. Previously broken down into smaller sub-units by material type, Merck’s materials business is now divided into three ar

Technology June 26, 2018

Most women with the most common form of early-stage breast cancer can safely skip chemotherapy without hurting their chances of beating the disease, doctors are reporting from a landmark study that used genetic testing to gauge each patient's risk.The study is the largest ever done of breast cancer treatment, and the results are expected to spare up to 70,000 patients a year in the United States and many more elsewhere the ordeal and expense of these drugs. "The impact is tremendous,'' said the

Technology June 3, 2018

With hopes of becoming a global bio center on par with those in San Francisco and Singapore, the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority unveiled its plans to expand a bio cluster in Songdo to attract global biopharmaceuticals.  Incheon Free Economic Zone Commissioner Kim Jin-yong speaks at the Global Bio Hub Symposium held at the Songdo Convensia in Incheon on April 11. (IFEZ)Kim Jin-yong, commissioner of IFEZ said during a Global Bio Hub Symposium held earlier this month that IFEZ will make use o

Industry April 24, 2018

Shares of Samsung BioLogics, a contract drug manufacturer under South Korea’s Samsung Group, hit an all-time high of 600,000 won ($564) on Tuesday morning, following news reports suggesting that the electronics giant is increasing direct stakes in its biopharma subsidiaries.　It marks a 341 percent jump from the firm’s initial offering price of 136,000 won set at the time of its initial public offering in November 2016.With the recent share price hike, Samsung BioLogics has become the third-large

Industry April 10, 2018

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the financial technology industry. This is the 12th installment. - Ed.Regulatory hurdles were high for local financial technology venture firm QARASoft, as its investment platform, the first of its kind in South Korea, was suspended shortly after its launch last year.QARASoft’s now-defunct platform, called “QARA,” connected individual asset managers with funds pooled -- or borrowed -- from peer-to-pe

Market March 25, 2018

Samsung Bioepis, the new drug development arm of South Korea’s Samsung Group, has launched its Herceptin biosimilar in the UK through its local marketing partner MSD, becoming the first company to bring a cheaper copy of the blockbuster anticancer drug to Europe.　MSD, also known as Merck & Co. in North America, announced Thursday that Ontruzant, the first biosimilar copy of Roche’s breast cancer therapy Herceptin (trastuzumab), had begun sales in the UK. Biosimilars refer to cheaper, near-replic

Technology March 9, 2018

South Korea’s Samsung Bioepis said Monday that its biosimilar referencing Roche’s Herceptin has been approved for sale in Europe, marking the first cheaper copy of the blockbuster breast cancer therapy to win regulatory approval in the region.　　The European Commission granted marketing approval for Ontruzant, Samsung’s Herceptin biosimilar, for the treatment of early breast cancer, metastatic breast cancer and metastatic gastric cancer.　With the approval, Ontruzant can now be sold in all of the

Industry Nov. 20, 2017

LG Chem on Wednesday launched Zemiro in South Korea. The combination tablet simultaneously treats diabetes and dyslipidemia, a condition in which an abnormal amount of lipids exist in the bloodstream. Developed by LG Chem’s biopharmaceuticals unit, Zemiro is a new combination tablet that merges LG’s diabetes drug Zemiglo -- a Diepeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor -- with the lipid reduction drug ingredient rosuvastatin.  (LG Chem)Patients who previously had to take two separate drugs can now take a

Industry Oct. 18, 2017

Olympus on Thursday announced the opening of a new training center in South Korea’s port city of Songdo, Incheon, joining other global health care firms that have set up new training bases in the city’s biotechnology cluster on the back of Korea’s growing medical and biotech sectors.　Olympus Korea's medical training center will help local medical professionals learn to maneuver and operate the firm’s endoscopy devices in an operation room setting, it said.　The Japanese surgical equipment company

Technology Oct. 12, 2017

South Korean pharmaceutical company Yuhan Corp. said Wednesday that it had become Samsung Bioepis’ exclusive marketing partner to sell two of Samsung’s biosimilar drugs in Korea, replacing the role of MSD Korea.The two companies have signed an agreement under which Yuhan will exclusively market and sell Samsung’s biosimilars referencing Enbrel and Remicade in Korea, Yuhan said. Previously, US-based MSD, or Merck & Co., had sold the two Samsung-developed biosimilars, which are marketed locally un

Industry Oct. 11, 2017

South Korean drug regulators on Monday granted sales approval to SK Chemicals’ herpes zoster vaccine, marking the second ever approval by a country’s regulator of a new treatment targeting the viral disease.The Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved SK’s Sky Zoster vaccine for use in adults aged 50 and over. It is the second vaccine for herpes zoster to be commercialized globally next to US-based Merck & Co.’s Zostavax approved in 2006.Herpes zoster, also known as shingles, is a viral

Industry Oct. 9, 2017