Biotech companies that went public in the first half of this year have shown disappointing stock performance, despite their flashy start.Shares of new pharmaceutical and biotech companies fared worse than those in other sectors on the KOSDAQ market, but their performance gaps have somewhat narrowed since the third quarter.Biotech and medical device companies that went public in the first h
Samsung C&T Corp., the parent company of Samsung Group, is likely to enjoy growth in value on the back of Samsung BioLogics, a biopharmaceutical unit of the conglomerate, an analyst report said Tuesday.As of the first half of the year, Samsung C&T held 43.4 percent stake in Samsung BioLogics, 19.3 percent in Samsung Life Insurance, and 100 percent in Samsung Well Story.Jeong Dae-ro and Lee
Korean biotech venture companies are increasingly seeking more Ph.D.-qualified employees, industry data showed Tuesday.According to online job search site BioJob, run by the Biological Research Information Center (BRIC), the number of total job openings in the biotech sector rose to 10,927 in 2017 from 9,930 in 2016.The data showed that the proportion of Ph.D.-required job openings rose mo
Among health-related government agencies, the Korea Human Resource Development Institute for Health and Welfare (KOHI) had the steepest rise in the percentage of woman employees this year, government data showed Monday.In contrast, the Korea Health Promotion Institute had the most significant reduction in the proportion of female workers.According to state portal, All Public Information in
Shares of Samil Pharmaceutical spiked on Thursday on investors’ anticipation of its experimental treatment for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a type of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NASH causes inflammation and liver cell damage, as well as fat in the liver.Samil’s stock price started off with 27,500 won ($24.8) in the morning and jumped 30 percent, a daily limit, to close at
Pharmaceutical industry officials are pinning high hopes on combination treatments using immunotherapies such as Genexine’s Hyleukin-7.The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved last Thursday a clinical trial on a combo therapy using Hyleukin-7 in patients with metastatic and recurrent solid tumors.The study will provide patients with a chemotherapeutic agent called Cyclophosphamide (CP
The exports of Korean pharmaceutical products continued to expand and exceeded $300-million mark in August, government data showed Thursday.According to the Korea Customs Service, the shipments of pharmaceutical goods under the HS Code 30 went up 12.9 percent to $311.7 million (350 billion won) in August from $276 million in July.The monthly figure was up 47.4 percent from $211 million in
Korean hospitals continue to enter the Chinese market, but most of them are seeking illegal ways to do so, an expert said.Lee Yoo-seung, CEO of Asia Dental Partners, said in a report on strategies to enter China, published by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), that many Korean hospitals struggle in China after failing to localize their Chinese units.According to Lee’s
The stocks of three biotech companies that went public in the second half hit upper limit prices on Tuesday. Icure Pharm, Olix Pharmaceuticals, and Union Korea Pharm, which were listed on KOSDAQ in July, saw their stock prices gaining 30 percent on Tuesday from the previous day.Icure’s shares closed at 56,600 won ($50.3), up by 13,000 won from the previous day. Those of Olix closed at 73,0
The government regulation is the biggest hurdle for healthcare business but it could serve as another opportunity for growth, an expert said.As legal and institutional systems tend to get behind state-of-the-art technologies, corporate officials and researchers should look for a new sector to broaden their boundaries of business, he said. Lee Jong-yoon, a data scientist at Micro
New digital healthcare technologies will significantly reduce repetitive work of nurses, a medical professional said.Digital systems are likely to replace unnecessary or merely repetitive nursing work, according to Kim Jae-hak, head of the Innovation Center at Asan Medical Center, during the “Digital Healthcare Fair 2018” at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, on Sunday.“I analyzed why nu
Industry watchers are looking for answers why shares of Nature Cell have been surging lately despite the financial regulator’s issuing of “investment-alert warning” on Monday.Nature Cell’s stock price had plunged below 5,000 won last month after CEO Ra Jeong-chan was indicted on charges of manipulating the stock price. However, the shares rebounded to 17,150 won ($15.3) per share as of 11 a.m.
Among the top 15 domestic drug companies, Kwangdong Pharmaceutical has the lowest share of woman employees, industry data showed. Coming next was Il-yang Pharmaceutical that has no female executives.According to the 15 companies’ first-half business reports submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service, female employees represented just 17.9 percent of the total workforce at Kwangdong. It was
Stock prices of GC Cell and ToolGen went in the opposite direction on Wednesday, with the former’s drug winning approval in the U.S. and the latter suffering a patent controversy. GC Cell said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had granted an orphan drug designation (ODD) to immunotherapy Immuncell-LC for pancreatic cancer, following the nod for liver and brain cancer.With the ODD, GC C
Amgen Korea’s Xgeva (ingredient: denosumab), a therapy for bone metastases from solid tumors that proved better efficacy than the conventional treatment, has recently gained insurance benefits in Korea.The reimbursement of Xgeva began this month for skeletal-related complications and giant cell tumor in patients with bone metastases from solid cancer. “Skeletal-related symptoms
Korean physicians and patients have expressed high expectations for AbbVie Korea’s Maviret (ingredient: glecaprevir/pibrentasvir), a chronic hepatitis C therapy that reduced the treatment time by one month, the company said.Some hepatitis C patients are reportedly holding their treatment to take Maviret instead, it said. AbbVie Korea announced that it would release Maviret soon,
ToolGen, a local biotech firm specialized in gene editing, has been mired in a controversy after a news report said the company illegally obtained patents for gene editing tool called CRISPR-Cas9. Industry watchers are paying attention to whether the issue would negatively affect the financial regulator’s review for ToolGen’s KOSDAQ listing later this year.Kim Jin-soo, director of the Center f
The Korean government has approved Ono Pharma Korea and Bristol-Myers Squibb Korea to sell Opdivo (nivolumab)-Yervoy (ipilimumab) combination therapy as the first-line immunotherapy to treat renal cell carcinoma (RCC).The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Aug. 29 granted the nod for the combo to treat patients with moderate- and high-risk advanced RCC who were untreated previously.The in
Acelex, the nation’s 22nd novel drug treating degenerative arthritis, is soon to be exported to Brazil under a long-term agreement, sources said Tuesday.Its maker, CrystalGenomics, has been negotiating with pharmaceuticals in China, South America, Southeast Asia, Russia, and Europe to sell the treatment.The sources said the company is in the final stage to complete a deal to supply the med
Korea’s drug exports to China turned around this year amid the easing of trade tensions between the two countries.The Chinese authorities recently began to allow group tours to Korea once suspended due to a conflict between Seoul and Beijing over the former’s decision to install a U.S. missile defense system in the country.According to data from the Korea Customs Service, exports of pharma