Daewoong Achieves Best 2Q Performance Driven by New Drugs 'Pexuclue' and 'N-Blo'

Daewoong Pharmaceutical achieved its highest quarterly sales and operating profit on a separate basis in the second quarter, driven by the strong performance of new drugs such as 'Pexuclu', 'Enblo', and 'Nabota'.

Daewoong Pharmaceutical's gastroesophageal reflux disease treatment 'Pexuclu' (left) and type 2 diabetes treatment 'Enblo' [Photo by Daewoong Pharmaceutical]

Daewoong Pharmaceutical announced on the 27th that it posted sales of 307.065 billion KRW and operating profit of 36.188 billion KRW on a separate basis in the second quarter of this year. This represents growth of 4.5% and 7.8%, respectively, compared to the same period last year, marking the highest quarterly performance ever. On a consolidated basis, sales were 350.043 billion KRW and operating profit was 39.54 billion KRW.

The company evaluated that prescription drugs, which have produced new drugs for two consecutive years, recorded sales of 220.7 billion KRW, growing 7.3% compared to the same period last year, leading Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s overall performance.

The main driver of this performance improvement was Pexuclu, a new drug for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). It is rapidly growing by leveraging its advantage of having the longest half-life of 9 hours among GERD drugs. In Korea, it achieved sales of 41 billion KRW within one year of launch, and aims to launch in 10 countries by 2027, starting with exports to the Philippines in the second half of this year.

'Enblo', Korea’s first sodium-glucose co-transporter (SGLT)-2 inhibitor class diabetes treatment, has also received much attention following its launch in May and the approval of 'Enblomet', a metformin combination drug. The company explained that even with only 0.3 mg, which is just 1/30th of the dose of similar drugs in the same class, it has equivalent or superior blood sugar and glycated hemoglobin lowering effects and safety.

Nabota, the only domestically produced botulinum toxin (BTX) approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), continues to expand its overseas sales countries through its partner Evolus. Recently, expectations have risen as 'Ion Biopharma', Nabota’s therapeutic indication partner, has grown on the U.S. stock market. Last year, the total BTX market reached 6.5 billion USD (about 8 trillion KRW), with therapeutic BTX accounting for more than half at 53% market share, and continuous growth is expected. Daewoong Pharmaceutical announced in May the construction of its third plant capable of producing 13 million vials annually to meet the rapidly increasing demand for Nabota.

Daewoong Pharmaceutical also achieved a major technology export. In April, Daewoong Pharmaceutical signed a technology export contract with Vitalli Bio, a portfolio company of U.S. biotechnology investment firm Aditum Bio, for the global development and commercialization rights of the Phase 1 clinical stage autoimmune treatment new drug candidate 'DWP213388'. The contract is worth up to 477 million USD (about 606.6 billion KRW), including an upfront payment of 11 million USD (about 14 billion KRW).

A Daewoong Pharmaceutical official said, “Daewoong Pharmaceutical has created an ‘innovative growth structure’ that renews growth every quarter through increased sales from new drug launches, global success of Nabota, and technology exports,” adding, “Based on Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s new growth engines Nabota, Pexuclu, and Enblo, we will leap forward as a healthcare group representing Korea in the global market.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.