SEOUL, Feb. 14 (Korea Bizwire) – Four major South Korean pharmaceutical companies spent more than 100 billion won (US$86.9 million) each on research and development (R&D) in 2016, industry officials said Tuesday. The four drug companies — Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co., Green Cross Corp., Daewoong Pharma and Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corp. — sharply expanded their [...]
SEJONG, Jan. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s customs agency said Wednesday that it has caught illegal imports in 89,336 cases in 2016, up 8 percent from a year earlier. The Korea Customs Service said it seized imports of foods that contain harmful substances in 9,033 cases, up 315 percent from 2,867 cases in 2015. [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – Only one South Korean pharmaceutical company had a new drug approved in 2016, compared to 11 drugs introduced by overseas companies including Novartis, Gilead Sciences, and Pfizer. Olita Tablet, a lung cancer drug from Hanmi Pharmaceutical, was the only new drug introduced last year by a local company, and [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean-made pharmaceutical products remain widely popular in “Jangmadang,” or North Korea’s unofficial provincial markets, even though the distribution of goods from the South is under strict control in the communist state, a U.S.-based broadcaster said Monday. A source in the North’s North Hamkyong Province told Radio Free Asia [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – Some pharmaceutical companies in South Korea chalked up strong sales in the first nine months of this year on the back of their moneymaking subsidiaries, industry sources said Friday. Consolidated sales of Kwangdong Pharmaceutical Co. are expected to exceed the 1 trillion-won mark this year for the first time [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Korea Bizwire) – Pharmaceutical companies are diversifying hangover remedies to cater better to customers, especially foreigners, creating new products in different packaging, industry officials said Wednesday. Handok succeeded in grabbing Chinese customers with its Ready Q Chew, the only jelly-type hangover remedy in the local market, where most of the products are [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s pharmaceuticals sector is gaining workforce, having added 27 percent more employees since 2011, data showed on Monday. Figures supplied by the Korea Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (KPMA) said 94,500 people were working in 842 companies of the pharmaceuticals industry at the end of 2015, up from 74,000 in [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 31 (Korea Bizwire) – Domestic pharmaceutical firms have started to release sensitive information that may play to their disadvantage, mainly in order to eliminate any misunderstanding or speculation by not disclosing information in advance. The move is also driven by the recent Hanmi Pharmaceutical controversy, in which the company allegedly leaked insider information [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Korea Bizwire) – Vitamins and tonics topped the list of best-selling over-the-counter (OTC) drugs in South Korea in the first half of the year, data showed Monday, as people got more health-conscious. According to the first-half business reports by local drugmakers, the best-selling OTC medication was Aronamin, a vitamin manufactured by Ildong [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of people arrested for drug offenses in South Korea reached an all time high of 11,916 in 2015, due to more people buying and selling illegal substances online, government data showed Monday. According to the data compiled by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office (SPO), the number of people [...]