The HIV journey is a roller coaster of highs and lows for the patients living with HIV and their families and loved ones but also for the community of researchers and clinicians who pour their hearts and souls into the work they do, said speakers at the International AIDS Society (IAS) 2023 conference in Brisbane, Australia.

South Korea’s antitrust agency on July 20 imposed fines of ₩40.9 billion (US$31.9 million) to crack down on 32 pharmaceutical firms charged with colluding on production, distribution and wholesale of vaccines in the country’s immunization program.

Artificial intelligence (AI) drug discovery specialist Insilico Medicine Inc. is progressing INS018-055, its lead compound to phase II trials for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic lung disease that results in progressive and irreversible decline in lung function.

Prestige Biopharma Ltd. is mounting efforts to rise rank through the industry with a two-pronged strategy of becoming a global cancer antibody drug developer and contract development and manufacturing organization.

With Aeon Biopharma Inc. listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on July 24, South Korea’s Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. is seeking new territory for its beleaguered botulinum toxin (BTX) product, Nabota (Jeuveau or ABP-450 in the U.S). Aeon’s move is expected help expand Nabota beyond aesthetic treatment to include medical conditions such as episodic migraines, cervical dystonia and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Sosei Heptares is fulfilling its ambition for growth in the Asia-Pacific region by buying the Japanese and South Korea businesses of Swiss biotech Idorsia Ltd. for ¥65 billion (US$463 million), potentially freeing Idorsia from its struggle to prove its stroke drug, Pivlaz (clazosentan), is effective enough to warrant approval in key Western markets.

Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is reconsidering its approach to regulating devices that bear materials of animal, microbial or recombinant origin, a broad class of products that includes transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) devices.

Taking strides from its start as a Seoul National University laboratory, South Korea’s Cellid Co. Ltd. said July 24 that the MFDS approved an IND for the global phase III trial for its omicron variant-targeting COVID-19 vaccine called AdCLD-CoV19-1 OMI. Approval from the MFDS comes two months after Cellid filed the IND on May 23 for its adenovirus vector platform vaccine “capable of responding quickly to virus mutations,” the company said.

The HIV journey is a roller coaster of highs and lows for the patients living with HIV and their families and loved ones but also for the community of researchers and clinicians who pour their hearts and souls into the work they do, said speakers at the International AIDS Society (IAS) 2023 conference in Brisbane, Australia.