A research team at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, the Catholic University of Korea has discovered a patient with Hemoglobin Kansas, a type of hemoglobin mutation, for the first time in Korea, the hospital said Wednesday.The team reported its finding to an international academic journal, the fourth such case following Japan, Brazil, and Turkey, it said.Hemoglobin is a pigment protein in red blo
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said Tuesday it would focus on developing cellular and gene therapies while strengthening price competitiveness through flexible drug pricing. The multinational pharmaceutical company announced these and other business plans during a media event held in Hongdae area, western Seoul.In addition to the development of new drugs, GSK will concentrate its efforts on produci
A new heart surgery method developed in Korea has appeared on the cover of a prominent international journal. The Seoul National University Hospital said Monday the study of “Arrhythmia prevention new cardiac surgery” by Professor Lee Jung-ryul of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery was published as the first cover paper of the American Thoracic Society “The Annals of Thoraci
The government should curtail the mandatory service period of military doctors from the present 36 months to 33 months, a group of medical college students said recently.At a meeting to propose medical policies at the National Assembly organized by Rep. Park In-sook, Ryu Wan, head of the Korean Medical Student Association (KMSA) urged the government to shorten the service term to 33 months, in
Pfizer Korea said Friday the company would do its utmost to ensure patient access to its breast cancer drug Ibrance (compound: palbociclib) for Korean patients.Many Korean patients have expressed dissatisfaction with the company’s proposal for a program, which offered a 30-percent refund of the prescription costs, asking why the company distributes Ibrance to British patients for free, but not
A Korean research team has developed a new anticancer treatment, which kills cancer cells by destroying mitochondria that supply energy to the cancer cells.The current cancer treatments remove cancer tissue through surgery and administer chemotherapy drugs. However, continued administration of a chemical can lead to resistance, and when cancer cells become resistant, it is no longer possible t
Pfizer has come under fire in Korea, as a group of breast cancer patients criticizes the U.S. pharmaceutical giant for discriminating against Korean consumers compared with their foreign counterparts, including Britons, industry sources said Wednesday.For example, Pfizer is reportedly distributing their breast cancer drug Ibrance입랜스 (compound: palbociclib) to patients in the United Kingdom by
JW Pharmaceutical said Wednesday that Actemra (Ingredient name: Tosylchemum) is the bio-antibody treatment most frequently prescribed as a remedy for rheumatoid arthritis.Actemra inhibits the combination of IL-6, a protein that induces inflammation in the body, with its receptor, and is regarded as an effective antibody therapy for treating IL-6-related diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Francesca Colombo, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s health director, cited financing as a stumbling block to the sustainability of healthcare service in Korea.Colombo pointed out, in her presentation on the theme of “future challenges of the Korean health insurance system,” that most of the national health insurance is taxed on earned income. But with the high elderl
The nation needs to reform the system for the future of health insurance by, for instance, reestablishing public health services and actively sustaining long-term conditions of primary care to patients, an expert said Tuesday.Sir David Nicholson, former chief of the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom, made the proposal at an international symposium to celebrate the 40th annive
A research team at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has discovered a new mechanism to treat Huntington’s disease, the state institute said MondayHuntington's disease, also known as Huntington's chorea, is a genetic defect that is a degenerative brain disease in which hands and feet move spontaneously under extreme conditions due to extensive damage to neurons of the striatu
The Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) has discharged a toddler who successfully received a lung transplant surgery last month, the hospital said Wednesday.The operation began on the evening of May 4 and lasted about nine hours until dawn the next day. The toddler, known by just his family name of Jung, received a big Children's Day gift and regained his health. At the time of surgery,
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Wednesday that the Peruvian government had recognized the Korean Pharmacopeia as that country’s pharmaceutical reference.A pharmacopeia refers to the code of Medicine, which defines standard rules that determine the basis for the quality of pharmaceutical products, including raw materials for drug, quantitative method, and purity test procedure. Korea
A Korean research team has discovered for the first time in the world that the primary factor that determines human intelligence quotient (IQ) is the network of several architectures of the brain. The research team of the Psychiatric Health Department at Seoul National University Hospital announced Monday that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed the network between the parietal-cerebellum
Novo Nordisk Pharma Korea said Wednesday that Team Novo Nordisk, the world's first professional cycling team composed of diabetic patients, is participating in the Tour de Korea 2017, an international road cycling tournament which starts Wednesday and continues through Sunday.The players of Team Novo Nordisk have left for Yeosu to compete in the five-day event competition and will head for the
The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, Director Lee Byung-kwon) has succeeded in developing the technology for evaluating the toxicity of anticancer drugs using small caenorhabditis elegans, or roundworms. These nematodes are a 1-millimeter transparent bug that resides in soil and consists of over 900 somatic cells, 300 neurons, and 20,000 genes, KIST said in a press release Mond
Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has developed a new method to diagnose prostate cancer quickly and accurately with only a small amount of urine.The researchers hope to overcome the limitations of conventional diagnostic methods that use invasive techniques, and diagnose prostate cancer more accurately, KIST said Thursday.Academic studies show malignant prostate cancer rate
The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) said Thursday it would bring a Korean and an Italian university together for the launch of an executive master degree program for graduates to receive a joint degree. The program is an extension of the University of Siena’s current executive master in vaccinology and pharmaceutical clinical development, a course intended for public health and biotechno
Sewon Cellontech has completed its patent registration in 35 countries in Europe for the manufacturing technology of CartiFill, a medical device for reconstructing cartilage tissue, the company said Thursday.The patented technology, called the "composition for cartilage tissue repair and its manufacturing method," is used for the production of bio-collagen (an international raw material dr
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety published a report Thursday on “genome editing technology research" with the focus on the trends of research and development and current regulations, domestic and foreign.The report is providing information on clinical and nonclinical studies carried out here and abroad for researchers who develop therapeutic agents using genome editing and help them develo