SEOUL, Feb. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s consumption of antibiotics edged down in 2015 but remained the highest among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the health ministry said Monday. According to the ministry, the country’s antibiotic use was tallied at 31.1 defined daily dose (DDD) per 1,000 people, meaning 31.1 [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) – South Koreans spent an average US$429 per person in 2015 to purchase medicines and medical supplies, slightly down from the previous year’s $446, data showed on Thursday. According to the data compiled by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, South Koreans’ average spending on medicine in 2015 was the [...]
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 [...]
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. 27 (Korea Bizwire) – Korean doctors and pharmacists have long clashed over whether to prescribe medicine based on the name of a brand or a drug’s composition. The debate dates back to 2000, when the Korean government first separated the prescription and dispensing of drugs between the two medical practitioners. Currently, prescriptions almost [...]
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, Dec. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – Annual exports from South Korea’s health care businesses are forecast to reach US$10 billion in 2016, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Thursday. Outbound shipments of locally manufactured medicines, medical equipment and cosmetics products are expected to total $9.8 billion by the end of this year, up 19.1 [...]
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, Nov. 2 (Korea Bizwire) – Renowned scientists from across the globe gathered in South Korea on Wednesday to discuss challenging global issues and to come up with scientific solutions. The 2016 Inter-Academy Seoul Science Forum (IASSF), hosted by the Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST), kicked off in Seoul for a two-day run [...]