Samsung Medical Center obtained the most approvals for clinical trials in the Korean pharmaceutical and healthcare sector last year, government data showed.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Thursday said Samsung Medical Center received 32 regulatory nods in 2017, followed by multinational contract research organization (CRO) Quintiles Transnational Korea with 26, Seoul National University Hospital with 24, Novartis Korea with 23, and MSD Korea with 21.

Among the 19 entities that won approvals the most, seven were multinational pharmaceutical firms, and four were foreign CROs.

Among the multinational drugmakers, Novartis Korea got 23, followed by MSD Korea with 21, Roche Korea with 17, Abbvie Korea with 16, Gilead Sciences Korea with 15, AstraZeneca Korea with 10, and Pfizer Korea with 10.

Among CROs, Quintiles Transnational Korea ranked first with 26 nods, trailed by PPD Development Pte with 16, INC Research South Korea with 10, Covance Korea with 10, and Parexel Seoul with nine.

Among three local drugmakers that won the green light last year, Hanmi Pharmaceutical obtained the most with 11, followed by Chong Kun Dang with 10, and Daewoong Pharmaceutical with nine.

Among hospitals, Samsung Medical Center ranked first with 32 approvals, followed by Seoul National University Hospital with 16, and Asan Medical Center with 13.

The largest number of approvals went to anticancer treatments, with 251 nods granted last year.

Among them, 114 were allowed for targeted therapies, and 89 for immunotherapies. Approvals for immunotherapies rose by 30.9 percent last year, compared to 68 in 2016.

Multinational clinical trials that won local approval went up 9.7 percent to 293 cases in 2017, compared to 267 in the previous year.

“Researchers’ clinical trials” -- where researchers explore new efficacy, usage, and dosage using the licensed drugs -- won 182 approval last year, up 6.4 percent from 171 in 2016.