Hwang Sung-gwan, vice president of SK Biopharmaceuticals' R&D Innovation, speaks during a press conference at the Koreana Hotel in Seoul, Wednesday. Courtesy of SK Biopharmaceuticals

By Baek Byung-yeul

SK Biopharmaceuticals will unveil wearable healthcare devices at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) next month as part of its plan to advance into the digital healthcare business, its head of R&D said Wednesday.

"The bio industry is changing by converging with ICT. We believe there will be a patient-centric period in the bio industry and we will try to lead the trend with our digital healthcare technology," Hwang Sun-gwan, vice president of SK Biopharmaceuticals' R&D Innovation, said during a press conference in Seoul.

SK Biopharmaceuticals said the CES, which will be held in Las Vegas from Jan. 5 to 8, will provide momentum for the company's drive to become a digital healthcare solutions company.

To that end, the company said it is optimizing its business model and ecosystem under a business plan called Project Zero.

"The project includes the development of wearable devices converged with AI and mobile technologies that can offer real-time monitoring and data-driven seizure detection for patients with epilepsy," the company said.

With that aim, SK Biopharmaceuticals will showcase at the CES five of its devices ― the Zero Glasses, the Zero Wired, the Zero Headband, the Zero Earbud and the Zero Headset. All five offer real-time monitoring to detect signs of seizure in epilepsy patients. The Zero Glasses and the Zero Wired recently won the CES 2023 Innovation Award for their design and engineering.

The company added that the wearable devices are compatible with the Zero App smartphone application that can record seizures and gather bio-signal data in real time.

"We are pleased to share our digital healthcare vision through Project Zero and wearable devices that will enable us to take a leap forward to become a global healthcare solutions provider," Hwang said.

"Through our business transformation model, we aim to further augment our digital healthcare capacity that can create value for our patients in the world."

SK Biopharm is best known for developing an anti-epileptic drug.