Daewoong Pharmaceutical Thriving Globally... "200% Growth in Overseas Exports"

Paxlovid, Enbelo, and Nabota Leading Overseas Expansion

Daewoong Pharmaceutical is increasing its exports in the global market despite the decline in South Korea's overall exports.

Booth view of Daewoong Pharmaceutical set up at DDW 2023.
[Photo by Daewoong Pharmaceutical]

Daewoong Pharmaceutical announced on the 21st that its overseas exports have grown by more than 200% over the past two years, driven by the global expansion of its botulinum toxin (BTX) product Nabota and its self-developed new drugs such as Pexuclu and Enblo. Specifically, exports increased from 44.8 billion KRW in 2020 to 134.8 billion KRW in 2022. Daewoong Pharmaceutical aims for export sales of 148.5 billion KRW this year.

Daewoong Pharmaceutical's new drug for gastroesophageal reflux disease, Pexuclu (active ingredient: Pexuprazan), launched in July last year, obtained approval in three Latin American countries?Philippines, Ecuador, and Chile?within less than a year of its domestic launch. Daewoong Pharmaceutical explained that Chile’s product approval is often used as a benchmark for approvals in Latin American countries, which is expected to accelerate entry into the Latin American market. Recently, the company also completed the product approval application in China, the world's largest anti-ulcer drug market.

Enblo (active ingredient: Inavogliflozin), launched in May this year, was exported to overseas countries such as Brazil and Mexico earlier this year before its launch. The contract size, including technology fees, amounts to 108.2 billion KRW, with a local launch targeted for the second half of next year. Additionally, Enblo has applied for product approvals in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines to enter the ASEAN market, which was worth 1.7 trillion KRW as of 2021.

Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s self-developed BTX product Nabota has entered overseas markets early and is showing strong performance. Particularly notable is its growth in the United States, the world’s largest market. According to Evolus, the U.S. sales partner, a total of 600,000 customers have joined the customer loyalty program ‘Evolus Rewards,’ and the cumulative number of procedures has exceeded one million. Thanks to this popularity, Nabota has shown an average annual sales growth rate of 62% in the U.S. over the past two years, and its market share has surpassed 10%. Nabota earned 77% of its sales overseas last year, and recently, with the U.S. stock market listing of Ion Biopharma, Nabota’s partner for advanced country therapeutic indications, it plans to enhance its competitiveness by expanding from the aesthetic market into the therapeutic market.

Daewoong Pharmaceutical's botulinum toxin product Nabota.
[Photo by Daewoong Pharmaceutical]

Daewoong Pharmaceutical explained that this is a remarkable achievement amid the decline in South Korea’s exports. South Korea’s exports in the first half of this year decreased by 12.3% compared to the previous year. Among these, the biohealth industry showed export growth. From 2018 to 2022, South Korea’s major export sectors, semiconductor and steel industries, grew by 0.5% and 3.1%, respectively, while the biohealth industry grew by 13.2%. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic period from 2019 to 2021, the export growth rate reached 28.2%.

A Daewoong Pharmaceutical official said, “We are achieving results in global markets, including advanced markets such as the U.S. and Europe, based on our self-developed new drugs. Going forward, we will focus all our capabilities on new drug development and export activation, which are the future growth engines of South Korea’s pharmaceutical and bio industries, to solidify our position as a global healthcare group.”

Meanwhile, Daewoong Pharmaceutical also achieved a remarkable feat by signing technology export contracts worth 1 trillion KRW during the first half of this year, marking the largest technology export scale by a single company in the industry.

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