SEOUL, April 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean authorities have extradited the leader of a massive international drug trafficking ring responsible for smuggling hundreds of billions of won worth of narcotics into the country, officials announced Friday. The suspect, identified only as A, a 41-year-old South Korean national, was apprehended in Thailand last November following [...]
SEOUL, April 4 (Korea Bizwire) — With patents on a wave of blockbuster drugs set to expire over the next five years, South Korea’s biopharmaceutical industry faces a critical window to capture a share of the rapidly expanding global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) market, projected to be worth tens of trillions of won. [...]
SEOUL, March 19 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea has witnessed an alarming 43-fold increase in the illegal importation of medications containing narcotic substances, including cold medicines, sleeping pills, and diet pills, over the past four years, customs officials reported on March 17. According to the Korea Customs Service (KCS), the volume of illegal pharmaceuticals containing narcotic [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 31 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean authorities have discovered multiple prohibited pharmaceutical ingredients in imported brain health supplements that claim to boost memory and concentration, according to a report released on October 30. The Korea Consumer Agency and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety jointly examined 19 foreign-made brain health supplements sold on [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) has discovered an illicit trade of prescription ADHD medications through social media platforms, raising concerns about drug abuse among students. In a joint operation with police conducted from July to September, the NIS identified 37 chat rooms on Telegram and X (formerly Twitter) dedicated [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – As South Korea prepares for the launch of Wegovy, a highly anticipated weight loss medication, next month, questions are arising about its coverage under private health insurance plans. Wegovy, produced by Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk and famously touted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk as his weight management secret, is [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — The Supreme Court finalized heavy prison terms, ranging from seven to 18 years, for four men connected to a high-profile drug scam case where young students were deceived into consuming drug-laced drinks, judicial officials said Friday. In the ruling made last month, one of the four defendants, a man [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 27 (Korea Bizwire) – In recent years, South Korea has witnessed a significant increase in medical expenses related to drug addiction, largely attributed to a growing trend of prescribing psychotropic medications for insomnia treatment and weight loss. The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) released these findings on June 26, coinciding with World [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — The yearly number of drug offenders surpassed the 20,000 mark for the first time last year, driven by increases among young people and women, a report showed Wednesday. A record high of 27,611 people were apprehended for drug-related offenses last year, marking nearly a 50 percent increase from the [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — More than 300 illegal immigrants have been caught for drug-related charges so far this year, police data showed Tuesday, amid a sharp rise in the number of undocumented foreign drug offenders. A total of 549 foreigners were apprehended for drug charges from January-May and 317 of them, or 57.8 [...]