Aju Press - Asia News Hub

Journalist

Kim Dong-young김동영

ReporterSamsung Biologics, CJ CheilJedang, LG Chem, Celltrion, Naver, Krafton, Nexon, Hyundai Mobis etc. & energy, game, food, bio, petrochemical, AI

Kim Dong-young is a bilingual journalist at AJU Press (AJP), covering Korean tech, energy, and bio/pharma.
He reports from the field at events like CES and APEC, runs AJP's YouTube channels,
and is pursuing a master's at Sogang's MOT program. "I try everything in this AI era that can improve yet preserve the facts. Journalism still serves as my core."

Latest by Kim Dong-young

LG CNS, Naver Cloud to cool Korea's biggest AI factory SEOUL, August 26 (AJP) - LG CNS announced Wednesday that it will build next-generation liquid-cooling infrastructure with Naver Cloud at its Samsong data center, moving to capture an early lead in the fast-emerging market for AI-ready computing facilities. The rollout comes as generative AI drives surging power draw and heat from high-performance graphics processing units, straining the conventional air-cooling systems that have long kept server rooms in check. To answer that, LG CNS will deploy direct-to-chip (DTC) cooling — a method that fastens coolant-fed plates onto GPU chips to draw heat away far more efficiently than air. The infrastructure is designed to run Nvidia's forthcoming Vera Rubin GPUs, owned by the state-backed National IT Industry Promotion Agency, which Naver Cloud will operate. Vera Rubin racks are expected to deliver about 3.3 times the inference performance of Nvidia's current Blackwell Ultra generation. With a total power capacity of 80 megawatts, the Samsong facility is poised to become one of the country's largest AI factories. The technology addresses a hard physical limit as air cooling typically tops out at 20 to 30 kilowatts per rack, yet high-density GPU server racks now exceed 200 kilowatts, making liquid cooling a prerequisite rather than a luxury. "Data center cooling technology is becoming a core competitive edge in AI service quality and operational efficiency," said Cho Heon-hyeock, an executive at LG CNS' data center business division, adding the company would keep building infrastructure to underpin the growth of Korea's AI ecosystem. AJP Takeaways • LG CNS said on Aug. 26, 2026, that it will build direct-to-chip liquid-cooling infrastructure with Naver Cloud at its Samsong data center, an 80-megawatt facility set to rank among South Korea's largest AI factories. •The system is designed to run Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin GPUs, owned by the state-backed National IT Industry Promotion Agency and operated by Naver Cloud, with construction and testing targeted for completion in 2027. •Liquid cooling is becoming essential as high-density GPU racks now exceed 200 kilowatts, far beyond the 20-to-30-kilowatt ceiling of air cooling. 2026-08-26 10:41:22
LG Chem targets AI chips at Taiwan expo SEOUL, August 26 (AJP) - LG Chem will bring a lineup of advanced packaging and power semiconductor materials for artificial intelligence chips to SEMICON Taiwan 2026, positioning its materials business for a market that AI demand is expanding rapidly. The company said Wednesday it will exhibit solutions for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and other AI chips at the three-day show, which runs from Sept. 2 to 4 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center. SEMICON Taiwan is one of the world's leading trade fairs for semiconductor technology, drawing chipmakers, outsourced assembly and test firms, and substrate and packaging players. LG Chem will display materials targeting the expansion of the AI chip and high-performance computing markets. Its Advanced Package Zone will feature copper clad laminate, glass core solutions, build-up film and dry film solder resist, among other materials used in cutting-edge packaging processes. A separate Power Package Zone will highlight conductive sintering paste, thermal interface materials and copper metal foam-based thermal management devices, which the company said help boost chip performance by improving heat control in power semiconductors for AI data centers. Through the exhibition, LG Chem aims to deepen ties with major chipmakers and forge new projects, accelerating growth in its semiconductor materials business as demand for high-performance materials climbs. "Customer demand for high-performance materials is rising as the AI chip and advanced packaging markets expand," LG Chem Chief Executive Kim Dong-choon said. "We will broaden cooperation with semiconductor clients on the strength of a differentiated materials portfolio and actively seize growth opportunities in the future chip market." AJP Takeaways • LG Chem is pushing deeper into semiconductor materials, using SEMICON Taiwan to court chipmakers, OSAT firms and packaging players for its AI-chip and advanced-packaging portfolio. • The lineup spans HBM-related advanced packaging (copper clad laminate, glass core, build-up film, dry film solder resist) and power-chip materials (sintering paste, thermal interface materials, copper metal foam), targeting the AI and HPC buildout at data centers. • The move fits a broader race among Korean chemical makers to convert materials expertise into higher-margin chip-supply-chain revenue as AI demand reshapes the market. 2026-08-26 08:33:01
S. Korea to launch national humanoid robot challenge SEOUL, August 25 (AJP) - South Korea will select a flagship humanoid robot platform through a national competition as it seeks a foothold in a field increasingly seen as AI's next frontier, the science ministry said. The Ministry of Science and ICT unveiled Tuesday the "Next-X Humanoid Challenge" at a meeting held to gather feedback on its AI humanoid roadmap at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology in Seoul. Domestic robots will compete through a public call and evaluation to win designation as a national-champion platform. The initiative falls under K-Moonshot, the government's program to accelerate science and technology through AI, and aims to secure a world-class Korean humanoid platform within three years. At the meeting, program director Yeo Jun-gu presented the draft roadmap and oversaw the appointment of a steering committee. Participants discussed developing core humanoid technologies and securing data, building cooperation among industry, universities and research institutes, and linking research outcomes to commercialization and overseas expansion. "The next big wave after AI will be physical intelligence that judges and moves on its own in the physical world, and the humanoid is its core platform," Yeo said. He added that Korea must nurture a technologically sovereign humanoid as a national strategic asset to counter the crisis of a shrinking population and safeguard future competitiveness. The ministry said it would refine the roadmap based on the feedback and present it as an agenda item at a ministerial science and technology meeting next month. AJP Takeaways • South Korea's science ministry will launch the "Next-X Humanoid Challenge" in 2027, a competition to select a national flagship humanoid robot platform through a public call and evaluation. • The challenge is part of K-Moonshot, the government's AI-driven research acceleration program, which targets a world-class Korean humanoid platform within three years. • The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to refine its AI humanoid roadmap and submit it to a ministerial science and technology meeting in September. 2026-08-25 14:44:30
Korean games chase first Gamescom win since 2022 SEOUL, August 25 (AJP) - South Korea heads into Gamescom 2026 with two award contenders and its biggest industry push in years, seeking to end a four-year trophy drought since Neowiz's "Lies of P" swept the show in 2022. Pearl Abyss's open-world action title "Crimson Desert" is nominated for Most Epic and Best PC Game, while "Age Twisters," a two-player adventure developed by Krafton subsidiary Piccolo Studio, is competing for Most Wholesome. The nominations give Korean developers another shot at a Gamescom award after several years of near misses. "Lies of P" became the first Korean game to win three Gamescom awards in 2022, taking Best Action Adventure Game, Best Role Playing Game and Most Wanted Sony PlayStation Game. No Korean title has won since. "Crimson Desert" came close in each of the past two years. It received two nominations in 2024 and four in 2025 but failed to take home a trophy. Competition is stiff again this year. "METRO 2039," from 4A Games and Deep Silver, leads the field with five nominations. "Alien: Isolation 2" and "Denshattack!" have four each, while Sega titles collected eight nominations in total. Fans and visitors can vote for nominees in the Arts and Platform categories from Wednesday through Thursday. Winners will be announced Friday at the Gamescom award show. The awards race comes as Korean game companies expand their presence at Gamescom beyond their traditional strength in online and mobile gaming and push more heavily into PC and console titles for global markets. Krafton is bringing five playable titles to its own booth, including "Age Twisters," "NO LAW," "Project ZETA" and "TARAE: The Unbound." The company will also unveil an unreleased title from PUBG Studios based on the PUBG intellectual property. NC is using Gamescom's Opening Night Live to showcase "AION 2," open-world shooter "CINDER CITY" and a new title under the working name "Project Bonfire." The company plans to reveal the official title of Project Bonfire during the event. "AION 2" is scheduled to begin global early access on Sept. 30, while ArenaNet's "Guild Wars 3" will be presented in the business-to-business exhibition area. Pearl Abyss is putting "Crimson Desert" in front of visitors at Samsung Electronics' booth, where the game will run on the Odyssey G8. Samsung describes the 32-inch display as the world's first 6K gaming monitor. Smaller Korean developers are also seeking a foothold overseas through a national pavilion backed by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), giving independent and mid-sized studios access to buyers and publishers at the show. The bigger Korean presence comes as Gamescom itself heads for another record year. More than 1,600 companies from 67 countries are participating in the 2026 event, while its 233,000 square meters of exhibition space have been fully booked for the first time. About 70 percent of exhibitors are based outside Germany. Last year's Gamescom drew 357,000 visitors from 128 countries. Artificial intelligence is also taking a more prominent place in the industry's discussions this year. Gamescom dev introduced dedicated tracks for AI in Gameplay and AI in Production, covering uses of artificial intelligence inside games as well as during development. The focus comes as adoption of generative AI spreads even while resistance among game developers grows. The 2026 State of the Game Industry survey found that 36 percent of industry professionals use generative AI in their work. But 52 percent said the technology is having a negative impact on the industry, up from 30 percent a year earlier. Concerns have also spread to digital storefronts. An analysis of more than 53,000 Steam releases found that 30.8 percent of new games released so far this year carried disclosures indicating the use of artificial intelligence, adding to concerns that low-cost AI production could make it harder for smaller studios to stand out. For Korean publishers, however, the immediate test in Cologne is more conventional: whether their expanding global push can finally produce another Gamescom trophy. The main exhibition runs from Aug. 26 to 30 at Koelnmesse in Cologne. The answer to Korea's four-year awards drought comes Friday. AJP Takeaways • South Korea is seeking its first Gamescom award since Neowiz's "Lies of P" won three trophies in 2022, with "Crimson Desert" and "Age Twisters" nominated this year. • Krafton, NC and Pearl Abyss are bringing a broader lineup of PC and console titles to Gamescom 2026 as Korean game makers accelerate their push into global markets. • Gamescom 2026 will draw more than 1,600 exhibitors from 67 countries, while artificial intelligence is emerging as a major industry theme amid growing developer resistance to generative AI. 2026-08-25 14:03:40
Heat wave fuels Korea food delivery apps to record SEOUL, August 25 (AJP) - Payments on South Korea's four leading food delivery apps climbed to an all-time monthly high in July as a punishing heat wave kept consumers indoors. According to Tuesday data from market tracker WiseApp Retail, combined estimated payments on Baemin, Coupang Eats, Yogiyo and Ttaenggyeoyo reached 3.28 trillion won ($2.37 billion) last month, up 18 percent from 2.79 trillion won a year earlier. The figure eclipsed the previous record of 3.20 trillion won, set only in May. Some 24.41 million people ordered through the platforms in July, spending an average of 134,747 won each across 5.8 transactions, WiseApp said. The average single order came to 23,203 won. The tracker attributed the growth to sweltering temperatures reinforcing a seasonal surge in dining-out and holiday demand, driving shoppers to their phones rather than to grocery aisles or restaurants. Aggressive free-delivery offers, discount coupons and membership perks further lowered the cost of ordering in. Baemin remained the most-used app, with 23.02 million monthly active users, followed by Coupang Eats at 13.13 million, Yogiyo at 3.55 million and Ttaenggyeoyo at 2.49 million. Coupang Eats posted record highs in both payments and users, sharpening a price war fought largely over shipping fees. The survey draws on a sample of Koreans' credit and debit card spending and app usage across Android and iOS devices. It excludes bank transfers, cash and gift-certificate payments, so the estimates may differ from companies' actual sales. AJP Takeaways • South Korea's four main delivery apps — Baemin, Coupang Eats, Yogiyo and Ttaenggyeoyo — took a combined 3.28 trillion won ($2.37 billion) in estimated July payments, an all-time monthly high, according to WiseApp Retail. • The total rose 18 percent from 2.79 trillion won a year earlier and topped the prior record of 3.20 trillion won set in May, with 24.41 million people ordering at an average of 134,747 won each. • Coupang Eats set record highs in both payments and users, reaching 13.13 million monthly active users against market leader Baemin's 23.02 million, as free-delivery competition intensified. 2026-08-25 13:21:11
Hyundai Motor reaches tentative wage deal after 60 hours of strikes SEOUL, August 25 (AJP) - Hyundai Motor and its labor union reached a tentative wage agreement, granting workers bonuses of more than 400 percent of monthly pay plus 12.7 million won ($9,189), ending a two-year run of strikes at South Korea's largest carmaker. The deal, reached after a two-day on Tuesday, 17th round of bargaining at the company's Ulsan plant, also lifts base monthly wages by 100,000 won and awards each worker 15 company shares, 500,000 won in welfare points and higher summer holiday allowances. It goes to a union vote on Aug. 31. Hyundai will hire 500 production workers, adding 200 in the second half of next year and 300 in 2028. The company agreed to withdraw all 10 damage claims and asset seizures it had filed against union members over past labor actions. Both sides deferred a contested demand to raise regular bonuses to next year's collective bargaining. They also agreed that any extension of the retirement age would take effect only if the law changes, without widening the wage-peak system that trims pay for older employees. The accord followed a bruising campaign of walkouts. The union struck repeatedly from July 13, beginning with daily two-hour stoppages, and staged an eight-hour full walkout on Aug. 21, its first company-wide strike in a decade. Cumulative strike time reached 60 hours. Because morning and afternoon shifts each walked out, production lines sat idle for 120 hours, disrupting output of 55,200 vehicles and causing accumulated revenue losses the industry estimates at more than 2.3 trillion won, based on average selling prices per car. "We have agreed to devote our full efforts to production and new vehicle launches in the second half, to swiftly contain the fallout from the strikes and resolve internal and external uncertainties to create an opportunity for a greater leap forward," the company and union said in a joint statement, 111 days after talks began on May 6. AJP Takeaways • Hyundai Motor and its union reached a tentative wage deal on Aug. 25 that includes performance bonuses of more than 400 percent of monthly pay plus 12.7 million won in cash, a 100,000-won base wage increase and 500 new production hires; union members vote on the agreement on Aug. 31. • The 2026 negotiations triggered 60 hours of cumulative strikes, including Hyundai Motor's first company-wide walkout in a decade on Aug. 21, idling production lines for 120 hours and disrupting output of 55,200 vehicles with estimated revenue losses above 2.3 trillion won. • Hyundai Motor agreed to drop all 10 damage claims against union members and deferred a disputed regular-bonus increase to 2027 bargaining, while both sides pledged joint responses to the shift toward physical AI and robotics in manufacturing. 2026-08-25 09:01:21
Sovereign AI race pulls world deeper into Nvidia's orbit SEOUL, August 24 (AJP) - When South Korea named the three teams last week that will carry its bid for a homegrown artificial intelligence model, the reward that mattered most was not cash or recognition. It was more Nvidia. The government said on Aug. 18 that SK Telecom, LG AI Research and startup Upstage had cleared the second round of its sovereign AI foundation model contest. For the next stage, each team will receive access to roughly 1,000 Nvidia B200 graphics processing units, up from about 768 in the first half, at a combined six-month leasing cost of around 120 billion won ($86.7 million). There is a revealing paradox in that arrangement. South Korea is spending public money to reduce its dependence on foreign artificial intelligence. To do so, it is deepening its dependence on the American company that supplies the computing infrastructure on which much of the world's AI already runs. Korea's predicament is increasingly a miniature of a global one. From Seoul to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, governments are pouring money into sovereign AI in an effort to keep national data, models and critical digital capabilities under greater domestic control. Yet the harder countries race to establish AI sovereignty, the more infrastructure they are building around Nvidia. The result is turning the sovereign AI boom into something Nvidia could scarcely have designed better for itself. Governments around the world financing an expansion of the ecosystem in which it already occupies the center. Nvidia's dominance starts with chips. About 92 percent of sovereign AI large-language-model projects tracked by Counterpoint Research use Nvidia chips. The Center for a New American Security finds Nvidia GPUs in 52 percent of the sovereign AI infrastructure projects in its database. Roughly 70 percent of sovereign AI projects tracked by CNAS involve at least one foreign partner, and four-fifths of those include an American company. The financial numbers convey the scale. Nvidia reported $75.2 billion in data-center revenue for the quarter ended April 26, up 92 percent from a year earlier. But the more consequential question is no longer simply how many GPUs Nvidia can sell. It is how much of the architecture surrounding AI those GPUs can pull into Nvidia's orbit. That is what makes the sovereign AI race different from an ordinary semiconductor boom. A country buying thousands of Nvidia processors is not purchasing interchangeable pieces of silicon. Its researchers learn CUDA, Nvidia's software platform. Its data centers are increasingly designed around Nvidia networking and rack-scale architectures. Models are trained and optimized in that environment. Engineers, cloud providers and startups acquire skills built around it. The larger the installed base becomes, the higher the potential cost of moving away. Sovereign AI can therefore create a peculiar form of path dependence. Governments seeking greater technological autonomy may simultaneously build domestic AI ecosystems whose most difficult component to replace remains foreign. The paradox is sharpest where the money is deepest. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have committed tens of billions of dollars to becoming major AI powers and have deliberately spread some of that spending among alternatives including AMD, Qualcomm and Groq. Saudi Arabia's Humain, for example, agreed with AMD on a multibillion-dollar infrastructure program partly as a way to avoid reliance on a single hardware vendor. Yet Nvidia remains at the center of the kingdom's most ambitious training infrastructure. Humain's Nvidia agreement calls for several hundred thousand of the company's advanced GPUs over five years, beginning with an 18,000-chip GB300 system. The UAE's Stargate project in Abu Dhabi similarly plans to use Nvidia's latest hardware for its initial buildout. The diversification does not mean an escape from Nvidia. What should draw greater attention is how aggressively Nvidia is widening the perimeter of that dependence. Its ambitions now reach above the chip into the model itself. The company struck a $6 billion licensing agreement with AI startup Poolside that gives Nvidia access to technology and engineering talent as it builds more powerful open-weight models, positioning itself against Chinese systems such as DeepSeek as well as the closed models developed by companies including OpenAI and Anthropic. It is also moving beneath the chip, into the financial machinery that determines which AI infrastructure gets built. Nvidia this month announced partnerships with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR aimed at mobilizing more than $500 billion of third-party capital for AI infrastructure. The proposition is unusual. Nvidia wants lenders and infrastructure investors to treat compute itself as a long-lived, revenue-producing asset that can be financed, transferred between operators and redeployed for different workloads. Its argument rests in part on the breadth of the Nvidia ecosystem. Because GPUs supported by CUDA can serve many models and customers, the company argues, they retain economic usefulness beyond any single AI project. Technical dominance gives Nvidia GPUs a large base of potential users. A large base improves their perceived redeployability. Greater redeployability can make lenders more comfortable financing them. Cheaper or more abundant financing can then make Nvidia infrastructure easier to buy. The ecosystem reinforces the economics, and the economics reinforce the ecosystem. "If GPUs have broad use cases on the back of the CUDA ecosystem and a large installed base, financial institutions have room to rate their residual value and redeployability highly," said Kang Jae-koo, an analyst at Hana Securities. "If that translates into higher collateral value or lower capital costs than rivals, customers will come to prefer Nvidia by weighing not just GPU performance but the total financing cost of an entire AI factory," Kang said. Nvidia's advantage is no longer limited to chip performance. Cheaper financing across its ecosystem could deepen its lead over competitors. Korea offers an unusually revealing view of how far the orbit can extend. The clearest example came this month when LG Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang signed a strategic cooperation agreement at Nvidia's Santa Clara headquarters spanning humanoid robots, AI factories and mobility. LG brings manufacturing capability, actuators, sensors and batteries. Nvidia increasingly supplies the intelligence layer. The bipedal humanoid the companies plan to unveil in the first quarter of 2027 will use Nvidia's Isaac GR00T foundation model, Jetson Thor computing platform and Halos safety technology. "As our collaboration gains momentum, the tasks where the two companies can work together have become clearer in the field of AI factory, physical AI and mobility," Koo said. The significance goes beyond one robot. Nvidia's position in AI is spreading from systems that train language models into the machines, factories and vehicles that may eventually run them. Even companies created partly as alternatives to Nvidia are being caught by that gravitational pull. Huang recently met Rebellions co-founder and CEO Park Sung-hyun at Nvidia's headquarters, with the two companies in preliminary discussions that Bloomberg reported could range from technical cooperation or investment to a possible acquisition. No transaction has been agreed, and Rebellions has confirmed the meeting but not the substance of the talks. The symbolism is nevertheless striking. Rebellions has spent years positioning its inference processors as part of a Korean answer to Nvidia's dominance. Park has publicly described his ultimate ambition as taking market share from the American chip giant. Now even one of the companies built to challenge Nvidia may find strategic value in entering its orbit. None of this means sovereign AI is futile, or that countries must manufacture every layer of the AI stack themselves. Even with sufficient GPUs, countries lack equal access to frontier researchers, energy, data-center capacity, advanced networking and the capital required to keep upgrading systems as models become more compute-intensive. Complete technological self-sufficiency would therefore be prohibitively expensive for all but a handful of countries — and probably inefficient even for them. The more useful question is what a country must be able to control, substitute or keep operating when a critical foreign supplier becomes unavailable. The Chey Institute for Advanced Studies argued in a report released Sunday that sovereign AI should move beyond ownership of a domestic model toward what it calls "access sovereignty" and "operational sovereignty." A country, it argued, should retain reliable access to essential AI technology while possessing the ability to switch systems and maintain critical functions if a particular model or cloud service is cut off. That is a more realistic definition of sovereignty for an industry whose supply chain stretches across borders. It also points toward the actual challenge posed by Nvidia. Countries do not necessarily need to eliminate foreign technology to achieve AI sovereignty. They need enough alternatives, interoperability and domestic capability that using foreign technology does not leave essential national functions hostage to a single supplier. The sovereign AI race may therefore be entering a second stage. The first was about building national models. The next will be about deciding which parts of the AI stack nations must control themselves, which they can safely source abroad and how much concentration they are willing to tolerate in the layers they do not own. For now, that calculation keeps pointing toward Santa Clara. Every national model trained on Nvidia hardware, every AI factory designed around its platform and every robot built on its software enlarges an ecosystem that becomes progressively harder to leave. The world is racing for sovereign AI. So far, the race is pulling it deeper into Nvidia's orbit. 2026-08-24 16:30:11
Seoul unveils national AI ethics principle SEOUL, August 24 (AJP) - South Korea has adopted a set of national ethics principles for artificial intelligence, laying out common standards that developers, users, government and society are expected to uphold as the technology reshapes daily life. The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Information Society Development Institute said Monday that the national ethics principles for AI were finalized on Aug. 21 after being reviewed and approved at a meeting of science and technology ministers. The framework enshrines three core values for the AI era, including human dignity, the public good of society, and the sustainability of humankind. It also sets out seven guiding principles to realize them, including human-centeredness, privacy protection, fairness and inclusiveness, accountability, safety, reliability and transparency. The government said it drafted the principles as AI drives productivity gains and new services but also stirs mounting anxieties over jobs, copyright, overreliance and the delegation of consequential decisions such as hiring to machines. Notably, it casts users, not just suppliers, as active stewards of responsible AI, and urges that the technology's benefits not accrue disproportionately to any single nation, region or group. "Accelerating AI innovation and building a safe, trustworthy AI environment are not conflicting tasks," said Bae Kyung-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT. Bae added that the principles should take root as a practical benchmark that bolsters public trust and helps spread the technology's benefits. The ministry said it plans to roll out case-based explanatory guides, sector-specific self-assessment checklists and tailored ethics education materials, and to keep refining the principles over time. AJP Takeaways Seoul is betting that ethics and speed can coexist — the guidelines are voluntary rather than binding, positioning Korea to court AI investment while signaling accountability, a balance Bae has pushed since taking the newly created deputy prime minister post. The move slots into President Lee Jae Myung's broader ambition to make Korea a top-three AI power, and follows the ministry's recent tie-ups with Google DeepMind and outreach to Nvidia. The framework's emphasis on users as responsible actors — not just corporate suppliers — is an unusual feature that could shape how future, more enforceable AI regulation is written. 2026-08-24 13:33:38
Celltrion files for approval of Keytruda biosimilar, joining domestic race SEOUL, August 24 (AJP) - Celltrion announced it has applied to South Korea's drug regulator for approval of CT-P51, a biosimilar version of Merck's blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda, joining a race among Korean drugmakers to grab market share once the original loses patent protection. The filing with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety revealed Monday comes about two weeks after rival Samsung Bioepis submitted its own Keytruda biosimilar, SB27, for domestic approval on Aug. 10. Keytruda, known by its generic name pembrolizumab and developed by U.S.-based Merck, also known as MDS, generated global sales of $31.7 billion last year, cementing its place as the world's top-selling drug. The medicine binds to the PD-1 immune checkpoint, blocking cancer cells from evading the body's defenses. Celltrion said CT-P51 is aimed at treating non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma, gastric cancer and head and neck cancer, and that a trial in 228 melanoma patients had confirmed it was pharmacokinetically equivalent to the reference drug, with comparable safety and immunogenicity. "Building on the successful establishment of targeted therapies such as Herzuma, Truxima and Vegzelma, the addition of CT-P51 will give us a lineup spanning both targeted and immuno-oncology treatments," a Celltrion official said. Celltrion plans to pursue approvals in the United States, Europe and Canada in turn, while industry watchers expect a domestic green light as early as next year, citing the regulator's move to shorten new-drug reviews to within 240 days. AJP Takeaways Celltrion applied to South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Aug. 24, 2026, for approval of CT-P51, its biosimilar version of MSD's Keytruda (pembrolizumab), the world's top-selling drug with global sales of $31.7 billion last year. The filing lands about two weeks after rival Samsung Bioepis submitted its own Keytruda biosimilar, SB27, to the same regulator on Aug. 10, 2026, intensifying competition between the two dominant South Korean biosimilar developers. Celltrion said a trial in 228 melanoma patients confirmed CT-P51 was pharmacokinetically equivalent to the reference drug, and it plans to seek approvals in the United States, Europe and Canada, with industry watchers expecting a domestic decision as early as 2027. 2026-08-24 10:46:54
Illegal weight-loss drug imports surge in Korea H1 SEOUL, August 24 (AJP) - The number of illegal imports of the weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Mounjaro seized by South Korean customs authorities jumped more than threefold in the first half of 2026, driven by a wave of individual online purchases shipped through the international postal system. Customs officials caught 4,155 attempts to smuggle in obesity treatments, including Mounjaro and Wegovy, between January and June, the Korea Customs Service said Monday. The tally is about 3.5 times the 1,189 cases recorded for all of last year. Seizures have climbed steeply since the two drugs launched in South Korea, rising from just four cases in 2024 to 1,189 in 2025 and topping 4,000 in the first six months of this year alone. Cumulative seizures from 2024 through June reached 5,348, dwarfing the 596 shipments that cleared customs through licensed importers over the same period. Postal seizures soared from two cases in 2024 to 1,046 last year and 3,489 in the first half of 2026, accounting for 84.8 percent of all cases as buyers increasingly ordered the drugs from overseas websites for direct delivery. Interceptions of travelers' personal effects also rose sharply, reaching 656 cases, while express-cargo seizures remained negligible Ordinary medicines may be brought in for personal use within set limits, but Mounjaro and Wegovy are designated hazardous drugs by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and cannot enter the country without a waiver certificate. Customs blocks them regardless of quantity and destroys any that surface at the border. The agency said it would rigorously choke off the flow of hazardous drugs at the border. AJP Takeaways The Korea Customs Service reported 4,155 attempts to illegally import Wegovy and Mounjaro in the first half of 2026, already exceeding the full-year figure for 2025. International postal shipments made up 84.8% of the seized cases, as buyers ordered the drugs from overseas websites for direct delivery. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety classifies Wegovy and Mounjaro as hazardous drugs, meaning customs blocks and destroys them at the border regardless of quantity. 2026-08-24 10:08:11