For anyone who has tried, it is evident that reducing one’s carbon footprint requires an extraordinary attention to the waste produced, coupled with a conscious effort to cut down on convenient habits that are harmful to the Earth. When the individual effort is enough of a challenge to take on, how does one achieve this seemingly insurmountable task as a company, let alone a global one with inte...

GC WellBeing will conduct a phase 2 clinical trial of its liver drug Laennec, to repurpose it as a COVID-19 treatment, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Friday. This puts the total count of domestic pursuits for COVID-19 treatments at 14 and vaccines at eight. Among them, Celltrion’s monoclonal antibody regdanvimab is the only one to have been emergency-approved. Laennec is made from h...

South Korea on Friday paved the way to approving Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 as another group of pharmaceutical experts positively opined on the vaccine’s efficacy and safety. On the same day, Korea received enough Pfizer vaccines to inoculate 58,500 people, sourced from the global COVAX facility. This lot, under special import exemptions, can be used without the Drug Ministry’s emergency...

European Medicines Agency said Wednesday, local time, that it has started a “rolling review” of data on South Korean company Celltrion’s monoclonal antibody regdanvimab. Regdanvimab, also known as CT-P59, is being developed by Celltrion for the treatment of COVID-19. A rolling review refers to an on-the-roll evaluation system that accepts data as they come from ongoing research. This form of ev...

South Korean biosimilar maker Samsung Bioepis’ CEO Christopher Ko on Wednesday carried out his first public event as the new chairperson of the Korea Bio Association. Korea Bio is an association representing more than 300 biologics companies in Korea. Ko was made its seventh chief on Jan. 28. He succeeded Macrogen Chairman Seo Jung-sun, who retired from the post after serving five terms. Speaki...

Swedish medical device company Elekta wants to give renewed hopes to cancer patients through its next-generation radiotherapy device Unity. Elekta on Wednesday launched Unity in Korea, making it the country’s first 1.5 tesla MRI machine that allows real-time, high-definition monitoring of tumors. Korean cancer patients will be able to access Unity at Yonsei University Gangnam Severance Hospital...

The first of the three-part evaluation of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine here has shown the vaccine to be 95 percent effective and eligible for use on those aged 16 and older, South Korea’s Drug Ministry announced Tuesday. The panel of seven, comprising virologists, medical professionals and statistics experts, confirmed that all 36,523 candidates given two shots of the Pfizer vaccine in clinical tri...

When talking about medical devices, conventional hardware with analytical or therapeutic functions for human health usually come to mind. But computer software that seeks to cure or alleviate symptoms in patients also falls into the medical device category, according to Article 2 of the Medical Devices Act. This new tool, after years of serving an auxiliary role for hardware devices, has recentl...

Precision life science company Macrogen will collaborate with US-based Lifex Biolabs on Parkinson’s disease treatment research, Macrogen announced Monday. This is a follow-up to Macrogen’s strategic investment in Lifex in 2020. Under the joint research partnership, Macrogen will sift out biomarkers for Parkinson’s, using its DNA sequence analysis technology. Lifex will use the biomarkers ident...

Samsung Display’s chief executive officer Choi Joo-sun is aiming to further embolden the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) involvement beginning this year. As part of this drive, the company announced Sunday that it joined the Responsible Business Alliance. The RBA is an international industry coalition that holds its members accountable to a code of conduct that aspires for ...

Only a day after Celltrion began distribution of its monoclonal antibody therapy for COVID-19 in Korea, the company announced Thursday that it is setting out to tackle the more contagious South African variant. “We have a growing library of antibody candidates for COVID-19 variants, of which the ‘32nd antibody’ has shown potency against the South African strain,” said Celltrion’s Honorary Chairp...

Celltrion began nationwide distribution of its monoclonal antibody therapy for COVID-19 on Wednesday. Celltrion’s regdanvimab is Korea’s first emergency-approved COVID-19 treatment. All 156 state-designated COVID-19 medical institutes are eligible for free distribution of regdanvimab, Celltrion said, upon individual submission of supply request. Patients who can receive the shot are confirmed ...

Following Celltrion’s monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19, a slew of homegrown therapies is on the way in the first half of 2021. Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical is set to submit application for emergency approval in February, and GC Pharma in April. Under the fast-track review program for COVID-19 therapies and vaccines, the new submissions will hear back in 40 days from application. Trea...

South Korean vaccine-maker SK Bioscience will manufacture 40 million doses of US’ Novavax vaccines, enough to inoculate 20 million people. Under the agreement signed by SK Bioscience, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency and Novavax on Tuesday, Novavax will license out its NVX-CoV2373 vaccine technology to SK Bioscience for contract manufacturing purposes. As per this deal, South Korea w...

Celltrion’s Yuflyma, an adalimumab biosimilar for autoimmune diseases, has been given the green light by the European Commission on Feb. 11, allowing for it to be sold in the European market, Celltrion announced Monday. Yuflyma is the world’s first Humira biosimilar that is high-concentrate and citrate-free, just the way the original drug was updated and where the rest of the market is headed, C...