Alteogen, a biotech firm, said it has successfully concluded a deal to make profits out of its own platform technology.The company said Friday it signed a non-exclusive global license agreement with one of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies for the human hyaluronidase (ALT-B4) platform technology. Under the agreement, Alteogen will provide ALT-B4, and the partner company will develop and comm
LG Chem said that it has licensed in a molecular diagnostic platform technology from Kryptos Biotechnologies, a U.S. biotechnology and diagnostic firm. Kryptos' technology, called photothermal heating, uses light to generate and control heat for miniaturization of molecular diagnostic devices.LG Chem plans to use the acquired technology to develop an ultrasmall molecular diagnostic device
A thoracic surgeon at a general hospital in Seoul has one thing he worries about before surgery. He has to check whether the patient has a designated blood donor. A hospital needs the designated blood donation system to check whether the patient has a person to share blood when it suffers a blood shortage for surgery.Usually, the Korean Red Cross’ Blood Center supplies blood for transfusions t
Syntekabio said that it aims to become the world's first publicly-traded company specializing in artificial intelligence (AI)-based drug discovery.“We will play a pivotal role in identifying the causes and cures of various diseases and develop new therapies based on precision medicine through the development of our big data and AI deep learning drug development platforms,” Syntekabio CEO J
S. Biomedics said that the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has approved a clinical trial of its embryonic stem cell-derived spinal cord injury treatment. It is the first clinical trial of a locally developed embryonic stem cell-derived treatment.The company plans to evaluate the safety and exploratory efficacy of the treatment in patients with ASIA Impairment Scale (AIS)-A and AIS-C within 60
Daewoong Pharmaceutical said its new drug Fexuprazan will challenge the potassium-competitive acid blocker (P-CAB) market, dominated by CJ HealthCare’s K-Cab.Pharmaceutical industry sources said Friday Daewoong has completed phase-3 trials on Fexuprazan and applied for marketing approval this month.P-CAB is regarded as the next-generation medicine to replace proton pump inhibitors (PPI), o
GC MS said that it has registered a patent for a technology that can detect detecting influenza virus in the United States. This is the first time that GC MS has obtained a patent in the U.S.The patent is a technology for detecting influenza viruses through a multi-influenza diagnostic kit. By collecting sputum or throat secretions, the kit can detect various influenza viruses, such as typ
“I’m scared that December is coming.”A first-year resident at an internal medicine department said he often recalls a medical mishap that claimed the lives of infants at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital two years ago. He feels it could happen at his workplace, too. In December 2017, the pediatric department of Ewha was in charge of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The depart
Hanmi Pharmaceutical said its Chinese partner Innovent Biologics has begun phase 1 clinical trial of an anticancer therapy using Pentambody, a platform technology developed by Beijing Hanmi Pharmaceutical, the company's Chinese offshoot.Pentambody is a next-generation bispecific antibody platform technology, in which one antibody binds to two different targets simultaneously. Beijing Hanmi
GI Innovation said that it has licensed out GI-101, a bispecific fusion protein for treating solid tumors, to Simcere, a Chinese pharmaceutical company. GI-101 is a bispecific immunotherapy agent made using the GI-SMART platform, a technology for developing bispecific fusion proteins owned by GI Innovation.Through combining the cluster of differentiation 80 (CD80) and interleukin 2 (IL-2)
Nurses in Asia have joined forces with Korean Nurses Association to demand Korean lawmakers to enact an independent nursing law.The representative nursing groups from nine countries, under the Alliance of Asian Nurses’ Association (AANA), sent a letter to the National Assembly on Saturday to encourage enacting nursing legislation. They are Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, the Phil
The government said it would grant insurance benefit to Takeda's ovarian cancer treatment Zejula (ingredient: niraparib) from next month.Zejula is a therapeutic agent used for monotherapy in adults with recurrent, platinum-sensitive, high-grade ovarian cancer, including fallopian or primary peritoneal cancer, who responded partially or fully to second-line or higher platinum-based therapy.
ST Pharm said that it has submitted an investigational new drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for STP1002, a colorectal cancer treatment candidate.The company plans to confirm the safety and efficacy of the drug while trying to expand the candidate’s indications to treat patients with advanced solid cancers such as non-small cell lung cancer and breast cancer, it add
SK Chemicals said Thursday it has won local marketing license for Ongentys (ingredient: opicapone), a Parkinson’s disease treatment developed by Portuguese drugmaker Bial. The two companies signed an agreement in February 2018 to supply Ongentys exclusively in the Korean market. The first Parkinson’s disease treatment in the local market is to be released in the second half of 2020.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Korea said that it has appointed Kim Jin-young as the new CEO and president of the newly merged company between BMS Korea and Celgene Korea. BMS completed the $74-billion acquisition of Celgene on Nov. 21.Kim has been serving as the interim CEO of the company since the resignation of BMS’s previous CEO, Park Hye-seon, in May.Before her appointment, Kim worked at th
Local diabetes experts on Wednesday stressed the need to treat diabetes at an early stage to reduce the high diabetes hospitalization rate in Korea.According to a recent report released by the OECD, the number of hospitalized patients with diabetes in Korea was 245 per 100,000 people, the second-largest among member countries after Mexico. The report also showed that Korea ranked sixth among 3
A Seoul court issued an arrest warrant for an executive at Kolon Life Science, who was involved in the development of suspended osteoarthritis gene therapy Invossa-K. Another exec managed to avoid the arrest. The Seoul Central District Court issued the arrest warrant for the head of the Clinical Development Team at Kolon Life Science, surnamed Cho, at around 0:30 a.m. on Thursday. The decision
SK Chemicals said it has obtained approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for SID710, a patch-type medicine for Alzheimer’s disease, on Wednesday. SID710 is a generic copy of Novartis’ Exelon and the first to win the FDA nod among locally developed patch for dementia. SID710 can be attached to the skin once a day, as dementia patients have difficulty remembering the time and th
Daewoong Pharmaceutical said that it has completed the phase 3 clinical trial for Fexuprazan, a candidate for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) treatment.The drug is a potassium-competitive acid blocker (P-CAB) that has a mechanism for reversibly blocking gastric acid-proton pumps in the stomach wall. The company has been conducting the phase 3 clinical trial at 25 hospitals in 260 pa
Gachon University Gil Medical Center said it has introduced an AI-based robot for orthopedic surgery, NAVIO, for the first time in Korea, and successfully conducted a knee replacement using the new technology.A team led by Professor Sim Jae-ang of the Orthopedics Department at Gil Medical Center on Wednesday last week performed joint replacement surgery using NAVIO on a 70-something person who