South Korea Despite its ageing population and growing need for healthcare, South Korea had just 2.6 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants in 2022, one of the lowest numbers among developed nations. To deal with the shortage, the government has created a plan to boost the yearly number of medical students, but this has…

APAC The latest pharma and healthcare news from APAC, including Celltrion’s plans to sell its Takeda portfolio to CBC; reforms to the South Korean national insurance system that may lead to shorter reimbursement timelines; Novartis’ early-stage HDAC6 Inhibitor deal with Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical; Astellas Pharma’s gastric cancer FDA fail; Daiichi…

Korea Global medtech giant Medtronic is hoping that its latest acquisition – EOFlow, a South Korean wearable insulin patch maker – will enhance its competitiveness in the global diabetes market.   The acquisition deal, as reported by Hyun-Ah Oh from Korea Economic Daily, involves the purchase of all shares held by…

Korea A roundup of some of the most important recent stories from the burgeoning South Korean pharma and biotech industry, including a government plan to expand collaboration with the global innovation hub in Boston, US; a list of some of the country’s most important biotech companies; and Medtronic’s move to purchase…

South Korea As big pharma continues to sharpen its focus on R&D by outsourcing other elements of the supply chain, including manufacturing, CDMOs have thrived. Samsung Biologics, one of the world’s top CDMO organizations, with revenues of USD 1.21 billion in 2021, is no exception. In response to increased demand, the firm…

South Korea After launching the first Korean COVID-19 vaccine, SKYCovione, SK Bioscience is preparing for its next big milestone, a US subsidiary, with the appointment of two new executives who are already securely anchored in the American life sciences ecosystem: former senior program officer in global health at the Bill & Melinda…

Korea SK Bioscience’s announcement that the first batch of its domestically developed COVID vaccine has been shipped may mark a significant milestone in South Korea’s journey towards greater vaccine self-sufficiency.   Back in October 2021, PharmaBoardroom ran through the leading Korean companies in the race to develop a homegrown vaccine against…

South Korea South Korea has carved a place for itself as a dominant player in the global pharma and med-tech manufacturing industry with national companies Samsung Biologics and Celltrion leading the way. In 2019, the South Korean government announced a USD 1.7 billion five-year plan to fund biotech-related projects with the intention…

South Korea The latest healthcare and pharma news from South Korea, including SK Bioscience’s COVID-19 vaccine, Daewoong’s partnership with AstraZeneca Korea and UCI Therapeutics, Vivozon production halt and GC’s acquistion of US-based CDMO, BioCentriq. SK Bioscience’s COVID-19 vaccine to be tested against Omicron (Korea Biomedical Review) SK Bioscience’s has submitted a biologics…

Korea Two decades ago, South Korean company Celltrion embarked on a quest to find the necessary resources to produce biopharmaceuticals. It took five years for their manufacturing plant to receive GMP certification from the US FDA in 2007 and another one to launch an initial public offering; an ascent that, while…

Korea Boasting a pharma market size of KRW 23.2 trillion (USD 19.2 billion) for 2020, South Korea is one of Asia’s leading pharma nations. Read on for a ranking of the country’s top five companies, whose revenues in the first half of 2021 topped KRW 3.5 trillion (USD 2.9 billion).  …

Korea Amid global supply shortages and shipment delays for COVID-19 vaccines, South Korea has launched an ambitious 2.2 trillion won (USD 1.9 billion) investment plan to become one of the world’s five largest COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing hubs by 2025. Here, we provide a rundown of some of the key companies involved…