Celltrion, Rani team up to develop oral Humira biosimilar for arthritis

South Korea's biopharmaceutical company Celltrion announced Monday that the company will cooperate with the US biotech firm Rani Therapeutics to develop an oral version of the Humira biosimilar CT-P17. CT-P17, also known as Yuflyma, is a high-concentration, low-volume and citrate-free biosimilar of Humira, an injectable treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune conditions, developed by AbbVie. Celltrion received the US Food and Drug Administration's approval for the injec

June 5, 2023

Daewoong seeks global expansion of Fexuprazan

South Korean drugmaker Daewoong Pharmaceutical said Monday that it is in talks with multinational pharmaceutical companies to carry out clinical trials of Fexuprazan, its new gastroesophageal reflux disease treatment, in key markets such as the US, Europe and Japan. The announcement comes after Daewoong ended its partnership with US biotech firm Neurogastrx on the same day. Earlier in June 2021, Daewoong signed an agreement to license out Fexuprazan to the US biotech firm. Under the contract wor

June 5, 2023

LG Electronics joins RE100 to go net zero by 2050

LG Electronics announced Monday it has joined RE100 initiative to go net zero by 2050. The RE100 initiative, introduced by The Climate Group in partnership with the Carbon Disclosure Project in 2014, sets a 2050 target for using 100 percent renewable electricity. Global tech giants such as Samsung Electronics, Apple, TSMC and Sony have already joined the initiative. LG Electronics said it will gradually increase the percentage of renewable electricity usage to 60 percent by 2030, and then to 90

June 5, 2023

Korea Herald charity golf tournament held to promote Hangeul

The Korea Herald, South Korea’s largest English daily, on Thursday held a charity golf tournament to celebrate its 70th anniversary and renew its commitment to boosting the global potential of Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. About 250 participants, consisting of CEOs across industries, celebrities and sports stars, joined the event held at Serenity Golf Club in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. “Based on your support and affection today, The Korea Herald will ramp up efforts for Ha

June 4, 2023

Meta unveils Quest 3 VR headset before Apple

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the Quest 3, his company’s latest virtual and mixed reality headset, via social media on Thursday, teasing the product before rival Apple’s similar launch expected next week. In a video on Instagram, Zuckerberg showed the Quest 3, which releases in fall. Meta said the latest headset features higher resolution, stronger performance with Meta Reality technology and is slimmer with a more comfortable form factor than the previous iteration. The latest d

June 2, 2023

Samsung, Naver Cloud team up to provide private 5G network at construction site

Samsung Electronics said Friday it is joining hands with Naver Cloud to launch a private 5G network for Hoban Construction, bringing the private 5G network in the construction sector for the first time. Samsung said it will be developing the 5G network for Hoban Construction, a mid-tier local builder to enhance worksite safety and efficiency. The 5G network will support new construction industry-specific 5G applications to help reduce on-site hazards and errors, including drone-based high-resolu

June 2, 2023

Samsung signals unveiling new foldable phones in Seoul for 1st time

Samsung Electronics’ marketing chief on Thursday hinted that the tech giant’s Galaxy Unpacked event could be held in South Korea for the first time this summer. “South Korea is an important market and Seoul is a meaningful place,” Lee Young-hee, president of global marketing at Samsung’s mobile business division, told reporters last week at the Samsung Ho-Am Prize award ceremony when she was asked about the possibility of Samsung unveiling its new foldable phones in

June 2, 2023

Samsung founder’s legacy honored

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong attended the awards ceremony for the Samsung Ho-Am Prize held in Seoul, Thursday, renewing his commitment to inheriting the group’s founding spirit of “patriotic industrial service,” according to company officials. It was the first time for Lee to take part in the annual event as chairman of the tech giant. The Samsung Ho-Am Prize, which uses the pen name of Samsung Group’s late founder Lee Byung-chull, was established in 1990 by

June 2, 2023

GGGI, Elders discuss path to net zero for Asia

Leaders and experts discussed a path to net zero for Asia at a forum co-hosted by the Global Green Growth Institute and the Elders on Monday. "Reaching net zero by 2050 could boost Asia’s gross domestic product by up to 6 percent, create 36 million new jobs by 2030, and improve Asia’s trade balance by hundreds of billions of dollars as a result of declining fossil fuels in the world," said former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who serves as president and chai

June 1, 2023

[KH Explains] Last chance saloon for Kakao’s portal biz

South Korean internet giant Kakao recently separated Daum, the operator of the nation’s No. 2 portal site, into an independent in-house company, fueling speculation that Kakao may be losing appetite for the search engine business a decade after their highly publicized merger back in 2014. Under the new decision announced on May 4, Daum began operating as a “company-in-company” on May 15, a more independent subsidiary with its CEO being appointed by the parent company to maintai

June 1, 2023

Hyundai Elevator launches advanced elevator maintenance service

Hyundai Elevator announced Thursday that it has launched an advanced elevator maintenance service, called Miri, which integrates the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, big data and robotics technologies. The new Miri, which means “in advance” in Korean, reflects the company’s commitment to providing the best customer satisfaction, the company said. Hyundai Elevator held the launch event at its smart campus in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, with CEO Cho Jae-cheon

June 1, 2023

Netmarble to launch 3 new games in H2

Netmarble announced Thursday that it will launch three new titles in the second half of this year as the South Korean mobile game giant seeks a turnaround after five consecutive quarters of operating losses. The three games slated to be released in the upcoming months are Tower Of God: New World, Grand Cross: Age of Titans and Seven Knights Idle Adventure. “The three games we are introducing today each have an easy level of gameplay as well as immersive storylines that were fully created o

June 1, 2023

Intel to build research lab for chips in Seoul

US chip giant Intel, which takes up over 70 percent of the global CPU market, is expected to establish a semiconductor data center development lab in Seoul to ramp up cooperation with major chipmakers here. The tech giant revealed the plan to build such research facilities in six countries, which also include the United States, Taiwan, China, India and Mexico, at Intel Vision 2023 last week in Taiwan, according to industry sources here on Thursday. In Seoul, the envisioned facility will be dubbe

June 1, 2023

Merck introduces enhanced barrier materials for OLED

Merck said Wednesday it introduced new barrier materials that offer superior flexibility, higher reliability and longer lifespan in flexible OLED devices, when compared to existing solutions. Fully flexible OLED displays utilized in foldable, rollable and stretchable devices require a reduction of about 60 percent of the display module’s thickness when compared to standard displays. But because OLEDs are highly susceptible to degradation by moisture and oxygen, an encapsulation or barrier

May 31, 2023

Naver downed by traffic surge after NK launch

The mobile webpage of Naver, South Korea’s largest online portal, suffered a brief service disruption early Wednesday after North Korea launched what it called a military reconnaissance satellite. According to Naver, its the server went down for about five minutes, from 6:43 a.m. to 6:48 a.m. due to high traffic, soon after the Seoul Metropolitan Government issued an emergency alert text message urging people to prepare for evacuation at 6:41 a.m. The message said the city government had i

May 31, 2023

Boryung launches space initiative with global partners

South Korean health care company Boryung has launched a global space initiative to advance human activities in space with industry-leading partners, the company said Tuesday. Boryung has joined hands with Axiom Space, a US commercial space station developer, and the Space Exploration Initiative, a research institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for the Humans in Space program. The HIS program marks the second global-scale space project for Boryung, after the South Korean health

May 30, 2023

Users to confirm every targeted ad? Korean regulation in discussion

South Korea’s privacy watchdog is gearing up to post new guidelines next month mandating user consent for personalized online ads hosted by advertisers in Korea. Under the proposed regulation, currently being drafted by the Personal Information Protection Commission, users would be obliged to opt in or out of personalized ads each time they navigate a new online page, regardless of login and membership status. “Although such a guideline is being drafted, the details are not confirmed

May 30, 2023

SK Bioscience's homegrown COVID vaccine gets nod in UK

SK Bioscience announced on Tuesday that its COVID-19 vaccine SKYCovione received approval from the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. SKYCovione has been approved for first and second primary series doses for adults aged 18 and over in England, Scotland and Wales, SK Bioscience added. SKYCovione is a recombinant antigen-based COVID-19 vaccine, jointly developed with the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington. The vaccine also contains GlaxoSmithKline&rs

May 30, 2023

Is China feeling pressure from its own ban against Micron?

China appears to be feeling pressure of potential chip shortfall after banning US-based chipmaker Micron Technology from selling certain products to its market, and is calling for South Korean chipmakers to fill up the gap to meet its local chip demand, according to experts on Tuesday. Global Times, China’s state-run English media, said in an opinion piece on Monday it will be “natural” for South Korea’s chip companies to fill some market gap in China, if China and South

May 30, 2023

SK hynix’s Gen5 DDR5 DRAM enters validation process

SK hynix said Tuesday that it has completed the development of the industry’s most advanced 10-nanometer technology-based DDR5 DRAM for servers and has entered a validation process together with US chip giant Intel. The latest fifth-generation DDR5 DRAM is the first of its generation being tested at the Intel Data Center Certified memory program for DDR5 products to run on Intel Xeon Scalable platforms. The chips boast an operating speed of 6.4 gigabits per second, the fastest speed amon

May 30, 2023