China has witnessed a remarkable increase in the number of healthcare workers and facilities last year, a local report said.The Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization’s Korea Bio-economy Research Center published the report titled, “Status of China’s Healthcare Market,” on ThursdayThe number of sickbeds at Chinese healthcare institutions reached 7.9 million in 2017, up by 5.3 million fr
With the population aging, the demand for point-of-care testing (POCT) devices will rise, and developers of such devices are noteworthy, an analyst said. POCT refers to medical diagnostic testing at the point of patient care.“In a nation like Korea where the number of the senior population is surging, the demand for over-the-counter drugs which can prevent diseases and POCT devices will in
Korean government agencies should collaborate to accelerate the rapid growth of the microsurgical robotics industry, a think tank said in a report. The Convergence Research Policy Center said in a recent report that micro-robots for medical purposes are at an “embryonic stage” around the world, which meant that there was no absolute superpower in the area yet. Microsurgery t
Market capitalizations of pharmaceutical and biotech companies that went public this year have gone down, adversely affected by the depressed pharmaceutical sector.Seven out of eight pharmaceutical and biotech firms that had an initial public offering in the first half saw their market cap reduced as of Thursday, compared to those at the time of the IPO.Biotech and medical device companies
Multinational drugmakers GSK and Pfizer said they would merge consumer healthcare divisions.The two companies said on Wednesday that they would establish a joint venture, with GSK owning 68 percent, and Pfizer, the rest.The joint venture is expected to sell the two firms’ popular over-the-counter medicines such as GSK’s painkiller Panadol, pain reliever and inflammation drug Voltaren, Pfiz
The macular degeneration treatment market is heating up with local drugmakers’ competition to develop generic copies of original treatments Lucentis and Eylea.The patent of Lucentis (ranibizumab) by Novartis Korea recently expired, and that of Bayer Korea’s Eylea (aflibercept) is to expire in 2022. According to data from IQVIA, Lucentis sold 19.6 billion won ($17.3 million) last year, and Eyle
The rising purchasing power of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which still has inadequate healthcare infrastructure, can be an excellent opportunity for Korean healthcare companies to seek growth, a report said.According to Hong Kong-Shanghai Banking Corp., ASEAN countries have been witnessing an expansion of the middle class and the domestic demand, with an increase in hou
Exports of botulinum toxin products, which had declined for several months, rebounded in November to the level similar to the same period last year, industry data showed.Korean-made botulinum toxin treatments had suffered sales drops in China recently due to Beijing’s harsher crackdown on “daigong,” or merchants who purchase tax-free goods in Korea and sell them in China.As the Chinese gov
Industry officials are looking what kind of positive issues will boost investment sentiment in the pharmaceutical sector amid the financial regulator’s stricter accounting rules on R&D spending and the accounting issue at Samsung BioLogics.In particular, they are paying attention to global healthcare conferences and academic events. JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, slated for Jan. 7-10, is
The Financial Supervisory Service has begun to inspect Celltrion Healthcare’s sale of the domestic distribution rights to Celltrion, to determine whether the act was related to accounting fraud, drawing keen attention from the industry. Industry executives say it is common for pharmaceuticals to count revenues from the sell-off of distribution right as sales.Celltrion Healthcare, which ow
Despite the shrinking size of the hepatitis C treatment market with more patients getting cured, pharmaceutical companies are still fiercely competing to sell their new products.In particular, MSD Korea’s Zepatier (elbasvir/grazoprevir), which arrived in the market in midyear of 2017, and AbbVie Korea’s Viekira (ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir) performed relatively well.According to IQVI
Samsung BioLogics is still showing its robust status in the Korean stock market, despite the recent controversy over the alleged accounting fraud that pushed the firm on the verge of delisting.The biosimilar maker was accused of cooking the books in May. Since late April, its stock prices have continued to go down.However, the recent resumption of Samsung BioLogics shares led the firm to r
The treatment market using bispecific antibodies is likely to grow rapidly, and developers of such novel drugs are drawing keen attention, analysts said.A bispecific antibody targets two different types of antigen proteins, making it possible to suppress mutations caused by cancer cell progression, observers say. The bispecific antibody market is expected to expand from $180 million in 2017 to
With the value of pathogen resources heightening under Nagoya Protocol, Korea needs to manage them far better than now, a report said. The protocol, which took effect recently, enhances each nation’s rights to biological resources that go into food, medicine, and cosmetics.Pathogen resources refer to valuable resources for healthcare research such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoa. The
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it would aggressively help biotech companies to develop new biopharmaceutical medicines.The ministry unveiled its plan at the “Biohealth industry Performance Sharing and Technology Information Exchange Meeting,” held at COEX, southern Seoul, on Thursday.Lee Sang-ho, program director of biomedicine at the Korea Evaluation Institute of Indu
Domestic pharmaceutical companies took up over half of the top 20 drugmakers that received approval for clinical trials the most this year, government data showed.The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said it has granted 798 regulatory nods for clinical studies from Jan. 1 to Wednesday.Excluding those given to hospitals and contract research organizations, 11 local firms and nine multinatio
Amid an increase of hypertension drug prescriptions, new hypertension combination treatment “Edarbyclor” arrived in the local market recently. The medicine combined “edarbi,” an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB), with thiazide diuretics “chlorthalidone.”Edarbyclor drew the industry’s attention by obtaining insurance coverage, simultaneously with the market release.Insurance coverag
The U Pharmaceutical, where employees are young enough to have fun, is a playful company, encouraging workers to “treat work as play.” Such a spirit might go against the “solemn” nature of the medical community, but the company has been successfully performing since its foundation in 2013. Its annual revenue spiked to 25 billion won ($22.5 million) in 2017 from 6 billion won in 2014. The n
Prescriptions of anticancer medicines jumped during the first 10 months this year, government data showed.According to data from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA), prescriptions of antineoplastic agents under Code 421 amounted to 1.44 trillion won ($1.28 billion) between January and October, up by 40.3 billion won from 1.39 trillion won a year earlier.Prescriptions of
As the regulation on the patent transfer to a company from universities and research institutions is getting tougher, drugmakers should accelerate licensing-in deals within this year, an expert said.Cho Won-hee, a partner at D’light Law Group, gave his advice at a seminar on the pharmaceutical and biotech market trends and response strategies, organized by the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Phar