Hanmi Pharmaceutical is ramping up efforts to enter the global market with its investigational nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) drug, LAPSTriple Agonist, the company’s CEO said at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference Wednesday.The company will begin a U.S.-based phase 1 trial for the NASH drug in the first half of this year, as the first of four clinical trials to be launched this year, Hanm
AstraZeneca and its global research and development subsidiary MedImmune said Wednesday they got the European Commission’s approval for Fasenra (benralizumab) as an add-on treatment for patients with severe asthma.Fasenra is an add-on maintenance treatment for patients with severe eosinophilic asthma who suffer from the condition despite taking high-dose inhaled corticosteroids and long-ac
Eli Lilly and Company has taken its topical testosterone replacement therapy, Axiron, off the Korean market after the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved its Korean branch’s request for the drug’s withdrawal.“We have proceeded with the voluntary withdrawal after considering various factors such as low male menopause awareness and the existence of substitutable medicines,” a Lilly Korea o
AbbVie Korea said Wednesday that upadacitinib, its investigational therapy for atopic dermatitis, gained the “breakthrough therapy” status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.The breakthrough therapy allows the FDA to give priority review to drug candidates when they offer significant treatment advantages over existing cures for severe or life-threatening diseases.The recent des
Korea will indefinitely uphold its policy that bars television ads of unhealthy foods from airing at prime time for kids, the government said after a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.The policy, continually renewed since its implementation in 2011, calls for barring ads of high-calorie and low-nutritional foods as well as highly caffeinated products from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m, government officials said.
The world’s first plastic tube presentation of oral cholera vaccine, Euvichol-Plus, is now ready for use, the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) said Tuesday.International procurement agencies and United Nations (U.N.) agencies can now purchase the oral cholera vaccine, which was developed from a private-public partnership led by IVI and produced by Korean pharmaceutical EuBiologics.EuB
Korea takes up the lion’s share in manufacturing condoms worldwide but ranks last among OECD countries when it comes to using them.Condoms are, without argument, a method for having safe sex. The barrier device, commonly made from latex, decreases the chance of pregnancy by around 85 percent. And unlike birth control pills, condoms also protect against sexually transmitted infection such a
New Korean research presents a new strategy for breast cancer treatment that uses photodynamic therapy to kill cancer cells selectively, Yonsei said Monday.Photodynamic therapy (PDT), like radiation therapy, is a treatment that uses a photosensitizer agent and a specific type of light to produce a form of “active oxygen.” The particular kind of oxygen destroys then nearby cancer cells.Howe
Big name Korean pharmaceuticals are shifting their focus to a new type of therapy called biobetters which, unlike biosimilars, are deliberately altered versions of existing biologics that improve the original drug in a significant way.Biobetters are new molecular entities that are superior, not a similar version of the patent-expired original biological drug. Unlike biosimilars (which are almo
Biogen Korea said Monday that it gained approval for its potential blockbuster spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) treatment Spinraza (nusinersen) from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety Friday.The injectable drug is the first and only U.S. FDA-approved treatment for children and adults with SMA, the company said. It is also the single treatment that proved significance for increased survival and
Takeda Pharmaceuticals Korea said Monday the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety designated its lung cancer drug Brigatinib as an orphan drug.The ministry designates a drug as the orphan drug status if it is used to treat a disease that affects less than 20,000 people in the country."We are pleased to offer new treatment options to patients with ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer through
The Health Education Forum, a civic group comprised of around 3,000 Korean health teachers, said Wednesday it supports the Seoul government’s tentative plan to install free condom dispensers in schools and public health centers.The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced in late November that it would consider supplying free condoms to middle and high school students to prevent unwanted pr
A local distributor of Johnson & Johnson Medical Korea filed a complaint against the company, alleging the Korean division of the American pharma giant forced it to cover expenses for its clients, according to a news service here Thursday.The Seoul Prosecution Office has filed the complaint against J&J Medical Korea on charges of violating the medical law and launched a full-scale investig
A Korean study showed statin therapy, traditionally used to treat high cholesterol, “remains far from satisfactory,” being effective in only 28 percent of the studied population, Severance Hospital said Thursday.“Although several studies reported results of this practice [of statins] in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia, studies on treatment with a predefined protocol, like ours, hav
The Korean branch of German medical device specialist B. Braun Korea said Thursday it had sharply cut the prices of its Introcan Safety intravenous catheters to promote access and prevent medical accidents.The price cuts come as part of expanding its “Safety Project,” its corporate social responsibility (CSR) project launched in eight general hospitals nationwide, it said. The company aims to
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration designated Novartis’ breast cancer drug Kisqali as a “breakthrough therapy,” giving the Swiss pharmaceutical a chance to get priority review upon significant clinical results.The breakthrough designation comes as the second for the drug. Kisqali first got the status in August 2016 based on the MONALEESA-2 trial.The latest designation comes from results
A professor at Konkuk University Medical Center will receive $800,000 in funding from Merck & Co. to conduct a “groundbreaking” oncology study that determines the effectiveness of immunotherapies, the hospital said Wednesday.The American pharmaceutical will back the study led by Professor Lee Kye-young, having selected his research topic as the final pick for Merck & Co.’s Global Oncology
The patient to doctor ratio in Korea is improving significantly, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said in a report Friday.In 2016, there were 230 licensed doctors per 100,000 people, which indicated an increase from 182 doctors per 100,000 people in 2006, data showed.The increased number of doctors also helped lessen the patient to doctor ratio. The country had one practicing doctor per
Too much video gaming may soon be classified as a mental, behavioral or neurodevelopmental disorder, according to a new draft of clinical diseases by the World Health Organization (WHO) Wednesday.Although not finalized, the gaming disorder newly classified by WHO refers to an addictive behavior of “persistent or recurrent” gaming where one has “impaired control” to the point where it takes
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Wednesday it has penalized 42 pop-up stores, or “tteotda rooms” as called here, which illegally sold medical devices to the elderly using false or exaggerated sales tactics.Tteotda rooms, impromptu stores set up illegally by individuals or companies that sell health foods, sell a variety of medical or general products with no proven efficacy. Salespeop