SEOUL, Dec. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — SK Bioscience Co., a vaccine unit of South Korea’s SK Group, said Friday it has extended an agreement to manufacture a component of the U.S.-based biotechnology company Novavax Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine by one more year. Under the extended agreement, SK Bioscience will reserve additional manufacturing capacity to produce antigen, [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Working extensive hours hurts not only physically, but also mentally, a recent study revealed. A research team from Soonchunhyang University Hospital conducted a survey of 14,625 men and women who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey held between 2013 and 2018, dividing them into groups based [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — Output and exports of South Korea’s bio industry expanded at the fastest clip ever in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Monday. Output of the local bio industry was estimated at 17.5 trillion won (US$14.7 billion) last year, up 38.2 percent from the previous year, according to the [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean drugmakers have begun the process to develop COVID-19 vaccines that are effective against the new omicron variant amid concerns that the highly transmissible strain may become a dominant one soon. As the omicron variant fuels fears around the world that the pandemic could rage during the winter [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean small drug firm Bioneer Corp. said Friday it has developed two new COVID-19 test kits that can detect the newly emerging omicron variant and that can distinguish between the omicron and delta variants. It marks the first time for a local drug firm to develop a kit [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — More than half of South Korean men in their 30s and 40s are obese, with the prevalence rate of obesity surging for men last year, a government report showed Tuesday. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) revealed the results of the 2020 national health and nutrition survey [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said Tuesday that Samsung Biologics Co., the biotech arm of Samsung Group, will manufacture its antibody combination against COVID-19. Under an agreement valued at approximately US$380 million, Samsung Biologics will manufacture AZD7442 — AstraZeneca’s combination of two long-acting antibodies in development for the potential treatment [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Amid the expansion of at-home medical treatments resulting from the surge in the number of COVID-19 patients, non-face-to-face medical services are also expanding steadily in medical communities. The medical industry, which once threatened a strike to prevent the introduction of non-face-to-face medical services, appears to be taking a step [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — With more Koreans drinking alone at home in the pandemic era, a new study showed that drinking a small amount of alcohol every day raises the risk of cancer in the digestive system by 39 percent. A joint research team from Seoul National University Hospital and Samsung Medical Center [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean biotechnology firm Hyundai Bioscience Co. said Tuesday that the combination of its oral antiviral candidate and dexamethasone showed high efficacy in treating COVID-19 during animal testings. The company is currently re-purposing niclosamide-based CP-COV03 as a potential treatment for the COVID-19 virus. The investigative drug’s indication also includes [...]