Korean biotech company CTCBIO said Friday it had sealed a deal with two organizations in the Middle East and Africa to provide sell its erectile dysfunction products in the regions.CTCBIO will provide Tadalafil (original: Cialis) and Sildenafil (original: Viagra) to countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, it said.“Following the ag
The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) has fallen into public scrutiny over the delay of pricing negotiations with AstraZeneca. Some of the agency’s negotiation staff may have a vested interest in doing so, an anonymous source said.The health agency and AstraZeneca have been locked in pricing negotiations over Tagrisso – a non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) therapy – since August, wh
AbbVie said Thursday its investigational drug for plaque psoriasis outperformed its blockbuster drug Humira (ingredient: adalimumab) and Johnson & Johnson’s Stelara (ingredient: ustekinumab) in three phase 3 trials.■ Related : World’s best-selling drug Humira gains insurance coverage in KoreaRisankizumab (ABBV-066) is an anti-interleukin-23 (IL-23) antibody in development to treat multiple
As Korea pushes to loosen bioethics laws to develop gene therapies, and verges on passing a bill that allows patients to refuse life-sustaining treatment, the concept of bioethics has come to the forefront of discussion.Professor Darryl Macer is a leading expert in bioethics, former UNESCO regional adviser, and president of the American University of Sovereign Nations, who believes bioethics i
Korean pharmaceutical Boryung said Thursday its line of hypertension drugs, coined the “Kanarb family,” recorded 5.18 billion won ($4.6 million) in prescription sales in September, elevating the drug to potential blockbuster status.Boryung’s line of fimasartan products – Kanarb, Kanarb Plus, Dukarb, and Tuvero – showed high performance in local and overseas markets becoming a leading example o
Samsung BioLogics (CEO: Kim Tae-han) Wednesday posted the sales of 127.5 billion won ($112.9 million) and operating profit of 20.5 billion won ($18.1 million) for the third quarter.The contract manufacturing organization (CMO) service provider for the global biopharmaceutical industry showed improved performance in the third quarter with sales rising by 64.3 billion won and operating profit by
Singer-actor Rain and actress Kim Tae-hee, who gave birth to a baby girl Wednesday, will store her umbilical cord blood at Medipost, a biotech company that specializes in stem cell technology.Cord blood is the blood left over in the placenta and in the umbilical cord after the birth of the baby. Cord blood contains red and white blood cells, plasma, platelets and hematopoietic stem cells that
A middle-school girl with AIDS has spread the autoimmune disease to 20 men after prostituting herself on social media in Busan this month, fueling an AIDS scare nationwide.Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) refers to a set of symptoms and illnesses that occur at the final stage of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV is a virus that attacks the immune system that if left untreated,
Public health ethics applies to not just health issues but all sectors of life, according to Angus Dawson, professor of bioethics and director of Sydney Health Ethics at the University of Sydney.Professor Dawson spoke at the National Bioethics Committee’s Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting for National Ethics/Bioethics Committees (AP-NEC) Tuesday to present the overreaching influence of public
Roche Korea finalized and presented 39 action plans to realize patient-centricity values of the company at an internal town hall meeting Monday, the company said.The Korean offshoot of the Swiss pharma giant said it created a “patient-centered” task force team early this year to foster culture and innovation that puts patients’ value at its core. In the following months, the company worked
Following the heels of approval from the European regulatory authorities, GlaxoSmithKline said it received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s go-ahead for its shingles vaccine Shingrix for those aged 50 or older, on Friday.■ Related : GSK’s shingles vaccine gets 1st approval from CanadaThe U.S. approval followed a unanimous 11-0 vote by the FDA advisory committee last month. Clinical
Sanofi-Aventis Korea said Monday its cholesterol-lowering injection Praluent (ingredient: alirocumab) proved “superior efficacy and safety” among Korean patients, with 92 percent of patients achieving LDL-C treatment goals at 24 weeks. “The sub-analysis of the ODYSSEY KT study showed the safety and LDL-C reduction effect of Praluent to be consistent with global phase 3 clinical trial results,”
Korean patients can now decide whether to continue medical care that prolongs their lives at the end stage of a serious illness, the government said Friday.The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced it would conduct a pilot project in 13 designated medical institutions until next January, during which patients with around six months to live can refuse medical care that potentially extends th
Novartis Korea said Friday its first-in-class drug for severe plaque psoriasis Cosentyx (ingredient: secukinumab) gained national coverage as a second-line treatment, retroactively from August.Reimbursement will apply to patients who have the skin condition covering more than 10 percent of the body and a PASI 10 or higher who have not responded to standard therapies (such as methotrexate (MTX)
The number of Korean teenagers with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has increased more than four-fold in the past 10 years, said Rep. In Jae-keun, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party Friday.Recent data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Health Insurance Service showed the number of Korean AIDS patients rising annually across all ag
Three pharmaceutical companies have put their names on the list of best employers in Korea this year, industry officials said Friday.Roche Korea has placed eighth, Roche Diagnostics Korea ranked ninth, and Hanmi Global took 10th place in the Aon Hewitt’s list of 2017 Best Employer Korea, Roche Korea said Friday.Topping the list was LG Display, followed by DHL Korea, Dongwha, Lam Resear
AstraZeneca Korea said Thursday it would continue pricing negotiations for its lung cancer drug, Tagrisso, saying they are “cooperating with health authorities to provide better treatments for lung cancer patients.”The remarks came amid the public’s suspicion of and patients’ protests to the possibility the English-Swedish pharma giant may go ahead without government reimbursement or even pull
ViroMed is making more progress with its gene therapy, having registered the drug’s compound “donaperminogene seltoplasmid” with the World Health Organization and in the U.S., the company said Thursday.The official registry of the drug’s international nonproprietary name and U.S.- adopted name moved the Korean biotech company one step closer to global market entry, the company said.“ViroMe
GlaxoSmithKline Korea said Thursday its human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has shown 89.1 percent efficacy rate in preventing HPV types 16 and 18.The British pharmaceutical giant presented findings from a seven-year follow-up study of 8,584 girls in Scotland who were 12 years old after the country introduced its National Immunization Program in 2008.Findings showed the vaccine showed 8
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a second CAR-T treatment – hailed as a groundbreaking therapy that genetically alters cells to kill cancer cells – to treat non-Hodgkin lymphoma.“Today marks another milestone in the development of a whole new scientific paradigm for the treatment of serious diseases,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said. “This approval demonstrates the conti