Samsung Biologics announced on May 22 that it has signed a supply contract worth at least US$381.25 million with two global pharmaceutical companies. The amount is equivalent to 66.7 percent of its sales of 701.5 billion won in 2019.It has signed a partnership with British pharmaceutical group GSK t
A Korean scientist in the United States has come up with a way that can produce a “transparent brain” 100 times faster than before.Prof. Chung Kwang-hun of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who is credited with developing an innovative technology to produce a transparent brain in 2013
The COVID-19 pandemic is giving opportunities for South Korean biotech companies to prove their technological excellence. Their multiple diagnostic reagents have obtained emergency use authorizations from the U.S. FDA and the world’s first COVID-19 antibody drug is expected to come out in South Kore
Korea Exchange announced on May 7 that Hyundai Motors’ market cap ranking has fallen from third (26.6 trillion won) to ninth (19.7 trillion won) since Nov. 13 last year. This is atypical in that the company was third-largest in market cap in most cases from the early 2010s to mid-2019. Its stock pri
BIO KOREA 2020 International Convention, where global bio experts correspond, is shifting to an online-only event.BIO KOREA Organizing Committee has taken its final measures to execute a full digitalization of the event considering the health and safety of its participants and prevention of the furt
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at gilbert.choi@nhqv.com. -- Ed. Regular rebalancing events are scheduled for both the Kospi200 and Kosdaq150 in June. This time, however, methodology changes are to be in effect. Given the recent market turmoil upon the outbr
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at william.ku@nhqv.com. -- Ed. Samsung Biologics’ 1Q20 OP beat consensus by 46.2% thanks to rising utilization rates and reduced SG&A expenses. We raise our TP to reflect revised DCF valuation assumptions. We maintain a Buy ra
Genome & Co. (KONEX: 314130), a Korean biotechnology company developing innovative therapeutics in immune-oncology, announced on April 20 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for GEN-001 for combination treatment with avelumab (
Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK) announced on April 14 that it will cooperate with Daewoong Group to develop a treatment for COVID-19.The institute said it has confirmed through cell experiments that anthelmintic niclosamide is effective in dealing with COVID-19 and it is 40 times and 26 times more effe
The stock price of Samsung Biologics jumped 4.49 percent and regained 500,000 won per share immediately after the opening of the trading session on April 10.The surge was powered by the company’s announcement immediately before the opening that it signed a letter of intent with a U.S. pharmaceutical
Korean pharmaceutical and biotech companies and government agencies are making a concerted effort to develop COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.Fifteen Korean pharmaceutical and biotech companies have set out or are preparing to develop COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, said the Korea Pharmaceutical a
The Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) and the Data Science Lab of Myongji University have selected the 10 most promising technological fields by using big data and artificial intelligence. The fields expected to show a very rapid growth until the mid-2020s include autonom
The 2020 JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, the world’s largest healthcare investment symposium for the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, opened in San Francisco, the United States, on Jan. 13 (local time), with some 1,500 pharma companies from 40 countries around the world participating. About 30
The Korean government says that it will revitalize the economy through regulatory innovation, but companies leading new industries are caught in the trap of excessive regulations.In the field of biotechnology, which constitutes a key growth engine in the 4th Industrial Revolution era, many regulatio
Leaders of Korea’s major business organizations in unison have called on the government to carry out regulatory reform. They expressed frustration over the growing set of regulatory bills, rising tax burdens and the deterioration of labor competitiveness.Indeed, with no economic drivers except for t
This year, South Korea's biotech industry faced a crisis due to a series of phase 3 clinical trial failures. The examples include Kolon TissueGene, Helixmith and SillaJen. The phase 3 clinical trial for Kolon TissueGene’s Invossa had to be stopped due to the use of unapproved cells that can lead
The Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) Authority has recently discussed cooperation with Imperial College London on its plan to build a startup/venture town in Songdo International City in Incheon, Korea.IFEZ Commissioner Lee Won-jae met with Prashanthini Jeyarajan, an industry partnerships and comme
Samsung BioLogics has won its patent invalidation trial against Lonza Group, a Swiss multinational, chemicals and biotechnology company headquartered in Basel. The Korean company announced on Oct. 1 that the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board ruled in favor of it on Aug. 29.The suit, which
As the Japanese government is moving to exclude South Korea from its trade whitelist, concerns are growing domestic biotech companies as it can disrupt the supply of biomedicine raw materials and equipment.The Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization (KoreaBio) submitted a petition to Japan’s Minis
A Korean research team has developed a three-dimensional human hepatic organoid by using stem cells and the functionally mature organoid can proliferate in human pluripotent stem cells.A human liver is a highly regenerative organ, yet it is difficult to obtain liver tissues and in vitro liver cell p