SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Biologics, a major South Korean contract drug manufacturer, said Thursday it plans to start building a fifth plant this year to meet rising orders. The company’s fourth plant, currently under construction, is set to be partially operational from October starting with a bioreactor capacity of 60,000 liters, CEO [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s drug safety agency on Wednesday authorized the use of U.S.-based biotechnology company Novavax Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine. The protein-based vaccine, Nuvaxovid, marks the fifth COVID-19 vaccine to get approval for use here, following the ones by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University, Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s biotech company ABL Bio Inc. said Wednesday it has entered a global license agreement worth US$1.06 billion with pharmaceutical giant Sanofi to develop and commercialize an antibody candidate to treat Parkinson’s disease. ABL301 is a preclinical antibody therapeutic under development as a potential treatment of synucleinopathy, including [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — SK Pharmteco Inc., a biopharmaceutical arm of South Korea’s No. 3 conglomerate SK Group, aims to generate US$2 billion in annual sales in the next three years with a focus on cell and gene therapy business, its parent company SK Inc. said Tuesday. Aslam Malik, CEO of SK’s contract [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — SK Inc., the holding company of South Korea’s No. 3 conglomerate SK Group, said Sunday that it has invested US$350 million in the Center for Breakthrough Medicines (CBM), becoming the second-largest stakeholder of the U.S. gene therapy company. SK said the investment deal with the Philadelphia-based contract development manufacturing [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — The Korea National Institute of Health said Wednesday that it will publicly share its multiomics data, clinical data and human biobank samples from COVID-19 patients. Multiomics refers to integrated data produced to genetically, functionally, and environmentally understand the collection of particles and cells from human biobank samples. The institute [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean biopharmaceutical company Celltrion Inc. said Thursday that its self-diagnostic kit for COVID-19 is available for purchase on global retailer Amazon. Celltrion DiaTrust COVID-19 Ag Home Test, co-developed by local health care business Humasis, received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Emergency Use Authorization approval last year. The [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean cell therapy developer GC Cell Corp. said Tuesday that it has signed the company’s first licensing agreement with India-based Rivaara Immune to develop its liver cancer treatment. Under the agreement, Rivaara Immune has obtained the exclusive right to develop and commercialize Immuncell-LC, immunotherapy for liver cancer, in [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion Inc. said Monday that its antibody treatment candidate against COVID-19 has shown safety in its clinical trial. Celltrion said it has enrolled 24 healthy volunteers in its global phase one clinical trial and confirmed the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of CT-P63. Separately, Celltrion said [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion Inc. said Thursday its new biosimilar of the arthritis drug Humira has won approval from Canadian authorities. Yuflyma, an adalimumab biosimilar with a high concentration, is used to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory diseases. Yuflyma requires only half the solution administered [...]