As South Korea's doctors continue their long-running protest against a government plan to raise the medical student quota at universities, the walk-outs may be beginning to take a toll on the pharma industry, with many large firms reporting weak earnings in the last quarter.

Aside from a mixed bag of second-quarter earnings, the latest developments in the Korean pharma industry include Hanmi’s search for new indications for u-turned assets and the approval of Yuhan’s lazertinib as a first-line treatment for NSCLC.

Highlighted by SK Biopharmaceuticals’ recent decision to acquire the US-based ProteoVant Sciences, Korean pharma firms are stepping up deals and collaborations in the hot TPD space, which is expected to continue to attract global investors and big pharma interest.

Large Korean pharma firms’ first-quarter earnings were mostly mixed on a range of diverse factors such as solid prescription sales and impacts from acquisitions, with some even looking to space for new business opportunities.