Hugel became the first Korean botulinum toxin maker to enter the Chinese market for aesthetic BTX, which is estimated to be worth 1.75 trillion won ($1.55 billion) by 2025. Hugel announced Friday its Botulax gained China’s National Medical Products Administration’s approval for sales under the product name Letybo. Hugel is now one of the four companies authorized to trade in the wrinkle-smoothening toxin in China, which is believed have great demand for the aesthetic product. To

Industry Oct. 23, 2020

LG Chem, partnering with Chinese firm TransThera Biosciences, has applied for a phase 1 clinical trial of its nonalcoholic fatty liver disease treatment in the US, the company said Friday. LG Chem’s pipeline TT-01025 is an investigational new drug for NASH, short for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, which is a chronic dysfunction of the liver that can lead to cirrhosis or cancer. “With close collaboration with TransThera Biosciences, we expect to enter clinical trials more quickly t

Industry Oct. 23, 2020

A majority of business leaders who participated in the 2020 GE Global Innovation Barometer report acknowledged artificial intelligence as a catalyst for innovation, GE said Friday. The GE Global Innovation Barometer is an opinion survey that has been annually commissioned by GE since 2011 to identify changing perceptions of innovation among business executives around the world. This year, 2,307 executives from 22 countries and 1,004 science and engineering students from 10 countries participa

Industry Oct. 23, 2020

LG Display on Thursday posted third-quarter revenue of 6.7 trillion won ($5.9 billion) and an operating profit of 164.4 billion won, marking the company’s first profit in seven quarters. The revenue was a 27 percent increase from the previous quarter. Net profit was 11.1 billion won. Panels for such information technology devices as computers laptops and tablets accounted for 43 percent of the revenue, with TVs at 28 percent and mobile and others at 29 percent. In a conference call th

Industry Oct. 22, 2020

GE Healthcare on Thursday hosted a seminar on how remote patient monitoring will become a new normal in the post-COVID-19 era. The seminar was part of the annual K-Hospital Fair 2020, which was held at Coex in Gangnam, Seoul. COVID-19 has made telemedicine and its related digital technologies a sudden quest in Korea, according to Professor Kim Kyung-hwan of Seoul National University Hospital’s Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery speaking at the seminar. These technologie

Industry Oct. 22, 2020

Merck has been recognized with the Korea Bioprocessing Excellence Award at the Biologics Manufacturing Korea 2020 event, the company announced Thursday. The event, in its ninth year, annually invites some 400 experts from more than 100 governmental groups, nongovernmental organizations, related businesses and academic institutions to honor them in their respective categories. This year’s event was conducted virtually due to COVID-19. “Merck’s technology was recognized in the

Industry Oct. 22, 2020

Many may have forgotten, but LG Chem was once the center of Korean bio innovations -- and it is taking steps to get back in the game where new players Samsung and SK are now making strides. In the latest, groundbreaking announcement for shareholders, LG Chem said it will separate its cash cow battery business and focus on promoting the balanced triangular growth of its petrochemicals, advanced materials and life sciences businesses. Shareholders are noticeably displeased with the company&rsquo

Industry Oct. 21, 2020

Samsung Biologics marked an operating profit in the first three quarters of 2020 of more than double its entire yearly performance of 2019, proving it has been undamaged and even buoyed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has largely slashed earnings across various industries. During the three months of July through September, Samsung biologics made revenue of 274.6 billion won ($242.4 million) and an operating profit of 56.5 billion won, according to the accumulated third quarter report on Wednesd

Industry Oct. 21, 2020

LG Display signed a three-year strategic partnership with Walt Disney Studios’ StudioLAB to provide it with organic light-emitting diode TV panels, the company said Wednesday. The deal will add transparent, ultrahigh-definition display panels developed and manufactured by LG Display for StudioLAB. StudioLAB is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios that researches cutting-edge filmmaking technologies. Walt Disney Studios comprises of Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation

Industry Oct. 21, 2020

After most of its Meditoxin units were stripped of its sales licenses, Medytox is at risk of losing two more of its products’ licenses as the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety moves to penalize their illegal sales in China. On Monday evening, the ministry issued an announcement that it has determined the 50, 100, 150 and 200 units of Meditoxin and Coretox violated the Pharmaceutical Act by trading overseas without the agency‘s permission to leave the country. Meditoxin 50, 100 and

Industry Oct. 20, 2020

GC Wellbeing has finished injection of its novel drug pipeline GCWB204 in European clinical phase 2 trial, the company said Tuesday. By the first half of 2021, GC Wellbeing will learn the scope of the drug’s effects and engage in negotiations for licensing it out, it added. GCBWB204 is a novel drug candidate for cancer cachexia, which is a nutritional imbalance in cancer patients that causes muscular atrophy and metabolic disorders. This medical condition can be caused by cancer itself,

Industry Oct. 20, 2020

Kolon Life Science will separate its biologics drug manufacturing business to an independent entity tentatively called Kolon Biotech. The separation is effective from Dec. 1, Kolon Life Science said through a shareholders’ notice on Friday. Kolon Biotech will be responsible for contract manufacturing of biologics drugs, using a facility that has been freed up after Kolon Life Science ceased production of the controversially revoked gene therapy Invossa. Kolon Life Science had battled an

Industry Oct. 18, 2020

An increasing number of South Korean pharmaceutical companies are catching on to Switzerland’s potential as a portal to the wider European market. Most Koreans know Switzerland for its chocolate, cheese, Army knives, watches and the Alps. But it is not these seemingly iconic items that are holding up the Swiss economy, whose gross domestic product per capita in 2019 ranked second only to Luxembourg in International Monetary Fund’s book — a ranking that demands appreciation giv

Industry Oct. 17, 2020

SK Biopharmaceuticals has licensed out its breakthrough epilepsy drug cenobamate to Japan’s Ono Pharmaceutical for 53.1 billion yen ($503 million), the company said via shareholders’ notice, Tuesday. The contract gives Ono the rights to develop and commercialize cenobamate in Japan. SK Biopharmaceuticals’ CEO Cho explained that this is a strategic decision to enter Japan, one of Asia’s largest pharmaceuticals market. Cenobamate is a drug for partial-onset seizure pa

Industry Oct. 13, 2020

Celltrion’s COVID-19 antibody pipeline CT-P59 will be clinically tested on asymptomatic COVID-19 patients and people who have come in close contact with confirmed patients, such as medical workers, to prevent infection, Celltrion said Monday. The purpose of the test is to verify CT-P59’s preventive effects against COVID-19 infection and early-phase virus eradication. Celltrion hopes this will cut blind spots where vaccines may fail to cover. The test will target a total of 1,000 p

Industry Oct. 12, 2020