Prosecutors have requested a court to issue an arrest warrant for Medytox CEO Jung Hyun-ho on charges of illegally manufacturing and distributing Meditoxin, a botulinum toxin product, sources said.According to industry sources on Wednesday, the Cheongju District Public Prosecutors' Office in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, pressed charges against Jung for violating the Pharmaceutical Aff
Biotech companies are chasing new diagnostics to detect the new coronavirus (COVID-19).The methods are evolving from the standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to the gene-editing CRISPR-based tests and next-generation rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) that single out a protein existing only in the COVID-19 virus. Celltrion recently said it was working on a next-generation rapid detect
DAEGU, South Korea – Prisons and detention centers are vulnerable to the risk of new coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreaks. When new confirmed cases surged in Daegu and North Gyeongbuk Province, correctional facilities reported several confirmed cases and medical workers who took care of them had to quarantine themselves. The healthcare void was filled by public health doctors urgently dispatched to Da
DAEGU, South Korea – “As police have their duty, a hospital has its duty, I thought. Everyone was so overwhelmed at first. We felt like we were in a war zone.”Huh Dong-myung, medical director of Daegu Fatima Hospital, recalled one day in last month when the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases suddenly shot up in Daegu. At the time, hospitals in Daegu and the neighboring region were packed w
DAEGU, South Korea – Monday, at 506 West Ward in Kyungpook National University Hospital in Daegu, where gravely ill patients infected with the new coronavirus received treatment on 16 beds, monitors at the nursing station showed busy nurses with Level-D protective gear. The ward was in a virtual crisis. Shortly after the hospital moved three patients to another institution after they got bette
DAEGU, South Korea – “Workforce in second-tier hospitals couldn’t keep up with numerous patients infected with the new coronavirus. So, Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital, a first-tier institution, has dispatched many medical workers there to stabilize the situation. If this becomes a long-term battle, however, medical professionals will be exhausted. I’m worried I might not be able to help reli
GSK’s sales of Fluarix Tetra, a vaccine against four different strains of influenza viruses, plummeted last year, and the company had to give away its No. 1 position to SK Bioscience in 2019. The second-largest quadrivalent flu vaccine seller was GC Pharma.According to data by IQVIA, a pharmaceutical market research firm, the domestic market of quadrivalent influenza vaccines expanded 9.5 perc
A cancer patient, who used to receive chemotherapy at the Catholic University of Korea's Eunpyeong St. Mary's Hospital, is worried sick now. The patient says he could miss treatment after the hospital was temporarily closed due to multiple outbreaks of the new coronavirus at the hospital.He thought about moving to other hospitals, but they refused to accept him out of fear that he might have c
With the rapidly rising number of the new coronavirus tests, the nation is suffering a shortage of imported reagents for nucleic acid extraction, a necessary procedure for the virus testing.The health authorities said they would seek to develop reagents locally.For COVID-19 testing, examiners extract nucleic acid (RNA) that contains the genetic information of the suspected patient’s specim
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) has approved two additional detection kits developed by domestic diagnostics companies, SolGent and SD Biosensor, for urgent diagnosis of the novel coronavirus.The KCDC said Thursday that it gave the go-ahead to SolGent's DiaPlexQ Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Detection Kit (DiaPlexQ) and SD Biosensor STANDARD M n-CoV Real-Time Detect
HLB, a Kosdaq-listed firm, said it would seek to secure new pipelines other than rivoceranib, the investigational cancer drug, to raise its corporate value as a new drug developer.Recently, the company took over a U.S. biotech firm to own new anticancer pipelines and is seeking to own additional experimental drugs.HLB said on Wednesday that it would participate in the three-party capital i
Celltrion, the nation’s leading biosimilar manufacturer, said its annual sales exceeded 1 trillion won ($834.7 million) last year. With the robust earnings, the company joined the list of pharmaceutical and biotech firms with over 1 trillion won annual sales.The company said it recorded 1.12 trillion won in sales, and 378.1 billion won in operating profit last year. The figures are up 14.9 per
Celltrion Healthcare, the distribution and marketing unit of Korea’s biosimilar giant Celltrion, said it marked the first prescription of autoimmune biosimilar Remsima SC in Germany, as part of efforts to expand sales in Europe.Remsima SC is the first product that the company is selling through a direct sales system. The sales of Remsima SC will be a barometer to evaluate the sales system
Local pharmaceutical companies are quickly releasing medicines containing famotidine to fill the void of ranitidine, a stomach drug recalled in September last year due to carcinogen risk.Companies won the local license for 13 famotidine products during the last two months of 2019, and another 25 dru
JW Pharmaceutical said it reported operating loss in 2019, turning from an operating profit a year earlier. A 29.3 billion won ($24.7 million) fall from a profit to a loss, which was worse than expected, was not only due to base effects from the 2018 royalty earnings but reduced sales of enteral nutrient Encover and increased R&D expenses.The company said in a public filing on Thursday that it
Weighed by growing fears of the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), most medical and nursing schools have either canceled or delayed graduation ceremonies.With commencement ceremonies canceled at medical schools, graduate medical schools, and nursing schools, graduates will have almost no chance to recite the “Hippocratic Oath” or the “Nightingale Pledge.”All the 40 universitie
The new coronavirus outbreak’s worst situation has passed because the growth pace of the newly confirmed cases has slowed down, a report said Monday.The Global Bigdata Research, a private research institute, released a report on changes in the number of confirmed patients and deaths in China, based on the statistics compiled by the World Health Organization as of Sunday. According to the C
AstraZeneca Korea’s branch of the Korea Democratic Pharmaceutical Union said it would leave the umbrella group due to different opinions over AstraZeneca’s influence on the KDPU operation.Unionized workers of AstraZeneca Korea recently voted to leave the KDPU and the company’s union will act as an individual labor union, not as a charter of the umbrella organization, industry sources said Frid
The legal dispute between Medytox and Daewoong Pharmaceutical over the source of the latter’s botulinum toxin (BTX) strain for several years is nearing the end, as a U.S. administrative court started a hearing.The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) began a hearing on Medytox’s suit against Daewoong on Tuesday, industry sources said. Medytox claims that Daewoong stole its BTX strain. The
Sillajen’s losses more than doubled last year as the company failed its phase-3 trial for Pexa-Vec treating liver cancer.The company said in a public filing that it recorded 9.1 billion won ($7.6 million) sales, 58.7 billion won operating loss, and 119.6 billion won net loss in 2019. The revenue increased 17.87 percent year-on-year, but net loss expanded 112.74 percent from 56.2 billion won a