Medical experts are increasingly raising suspicions over whether Handok’s new drink Souvenaid has efficacy to improve memory in patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.Some even suspect that the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety was conniving at the pharmaceutical company’s promotion of the controversial drink.Barun Medicine Institute, a civic group of medical professionals, called f
Antidiabetic drugs using sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT-2) inhibitor as the main ingredient continued to sell well in the third quarter, industry data showed.According to data by UBIST, a pharmaceutical market researcher, three SGLT-2 inhibitor treatments Forxiga (AstraZeneca), Jardiance (Boehringer Ingelheim), and Suglat (Astellas) had posted 12.84 billion won ($11.3 million) in combine
With local shingles vaccines rolled out, the prices of shingles vaccines are likely to go down.Shingles vaccine biddings for 2018 showed that provincial governments, including South Chungcheong Province and North Jeolla Province, decided to purchase shingles vaccines at between 86,000 won ($76.26) and 105,000 won per vial from wholesalers.The prices offered by each provincial government ar
L&C BIO, a tissue engineering company, said on Friday that it has set its offering price for new shares to be traded on the KOSDAQ market at 24,000 won ($21.2) per share.For the pricing of the share, the company held a book-building session from Tuesday to Wednesday. The book building process involves checking investor demand for new shares. A total of 1,077 institutional investors participate
Pharmaceutical companies aggressively marketed new quadrivalent flu vaccines but failed to meet sales targets due to high demand for trivalent products, industry sources said. Trivalent flu shots protect against three different flu viruses, and quadrivalent, against four different viruses. According to the sources, most of the trivalent influenza vaccines under the National Immuniz
Korean pharmaceutical companies are struggling to develop new drugs out of natural products, as the Nagoya Protocol recently took effect. The protocol enhances each nation’s rights to biological resources that go into food, medicine, and cosmetics.Natural product-derived drugs refer to medicines developed with acting ingredients extracted from animals, plants, and minerals. The World Health Or
The pharmaceutical industry is paying keen attention to why the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety conducted an urgent inspection of four cell therapy developers. Industry sources said the ministry raided Kolon Life Science, Tego Science, Bio Solution, and Medipost at 10 a.m. Monday.The ministry did not provide detailed reasons for the emergency inspection, but biotech industry observers spe
Local pharmaceutical firms should brace for a new era where drugmakers take advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a new medicine, experts said.The AI-using new drug development has already become the latest trend and doing so will save cost and time, they said at a news conference at the AI Pharma Korea Conference 2018 at COEX, southern Seoul, on Monday. The Korea Pharmaceutical
The medical community and pharmaceutical industry have raised suspicion that Handok unfairly evaded regulations to promote Souvenaid, a new drink to improve memory in patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The product is categorized as a “food for special medical purposes” in Korea.Healthcare professionals criticized the drugmaker for misleading consumers and patients by inserting con
Cellrion is expected to accelerate its move to enter the U.S. market with an imminent approval for an anticancer biosimilar from the U.S. drug regulator.The South Korean drugmaker said on Thursday that the U.S. Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) recommended the biosimilar Truxima (rituximab), or CT-P10, for approval of the Food and Drug Administration.Truxima, a copy of Roche’s Ritu
The issue of illegal rebates is stirring the Korean pharmaceutical sector, again.Industry officials are paying particular attention to the government’s thorough investigation into owners of pharmaceutical firms in bribery cases.Recently, the police booked Kukje Pharma’s Co-CEO Nam Tae-hun for giving illegal rebates to doctors. In June, Dong-A Socio Holdings Chairman Kang Jung-seok was sent
A midsize Korean pharmaceutical company has been embroiled in an illegal rebate case recently, despite its pledge to obtain an ISO 37001 certification for anti-bribery management.The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said on Wednesday that they booked without detention Kukje Pharm’s Co-CEO Nam Tae-hun and nine other executives for bribing physicians to promote the company’s medicines.
Several pharmaceutical and biotech firms have appointed a new CEO or a vice president to boost the overall corporate competitiveness and enhance main businesses.These drugmakers include Genexine, Samsung Pharm, Ahn-Gook Pharm, Boryung Pharmaceutical, and Handok.In September, Handok appointed Cho Jeong-yol as president and CEO who had various business careers. Cho accumulated experience in
Daewoong Pharmaceutical has changed its strategy of entering the Chinese market with its botulinum toxin Nabota.The Korean drugmaker said it voluntarily withdrew the clinical trial application (CTA) for Nabota that was approved by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) in January. The company plans to submit a new CTA with an update in production site within this year.The previous C
GC LabCell said Thursday it has received regulatory approval for a phase-1/2a trial to expand the indication of anti-cancer cell therapy MG4101 to treat refractory lymphoma.MG4101 is an investigational cell therapy using natural killer (NK) cells that are isolated from healthy human blood. The proliferated and cultured NK cells kill cancer cells or abnormal cells. Such anticancer treatment has
The Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association (KPBMA) and the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) said they would hold “AI Pharma Korea Conference” at COEX, southern Seoul, on Nov. 15.The event aims to showcase the latest trends of artificial intelligence (AI)-based technologies and offer opportunities for foreign companies to team up with local pharmaceutic
Original hypertension treatments by multinational pharmaceuticals achieved a robust sales growth in August, while most of the local rival drugs faced a recall due to carcinogen risks.According to data from UBIST, nine original treatments for high blood pressure such as Twynsta posted 32.8 billion won ($29.5 million) in outpatient prescriptions in August, up 3.2 percent from 31.8 billion won in
Korea and Belgium will hold their first joint pharmaceutical conference in Brussel to seek growth opportunities in the sector, industry officials said.The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korean Embassy to Belgium and the European Union will host the event “Korea-Belgium Pharma-Bio Conference” at Le Chatelain Brussels Hotel on Nov. 8-9.The Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufact
Biois Corp. said it has registered a patent on aptamers binding to tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and their therapeutic uses. TNF is a protein that causes inflammation.Aptamers binding to TNF-alpha raises specificity for TNF-alpha, allowing the company to develop a new TNF-alpha inhibitor with a high chance of drug utilization.With the patent, Biois will be able to maximize the ad
Korean makers of botulinum toxin are likely to compete against one another in the global market next year, industry watchers said Tuesday.Daewoong Pharmaceutical, Medytox, and Hugel will vie for a larger market share in the U.S., and Medytox and Huons, in China. The four Korean companies have selected local partners in the U.S. and China for distribution channels, waiting for approval as the l