[Click e-Stock] "Daewoong Pharmaceutical Shifts Focus to Digital Healthcare...Target Price Raised"

"To the Point of Determining Company-wide Margins"
Target Price Raised 14% to 240,000 Won

Kiwoom Securities announced on the 10th that its key investment focus for Daewoong Pharmaceutical has shifted from botulinum toxin to digital healthcare, and raised its target price by 14% to 240,000 won while maintaining its "Buy" rating.

Shin Minsoo, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities, said, "Until early last year, Daewoong Pharmaceutical's valuation was driven by its independently developed new drugs such as 'Fexuclu' and 'Enblo', along with toxin-related litigation and toxin export volume," adding, "Now, by serving as a bridge between hospitals that rapidly adopt digital healthcare and new-technology developers, the division has grown influential enough to determine the company-wide profit margin."

In the fourth quarter of last year, Daewoong Pharmaceutical posted sales of 397.1 billion won and operating profit of 43.4 billion won, with both figures falling 2% short of market expectations. In the same quarter, the digital healthcare division recorded sales of 14.6 billion won, up 63.3% year-on-year. Its full-year sales for this year are projected to reach 125 billion won, a 145.4% increase from the previous year. Shin commented, "The division is growing rapidly as it markets the patient-monitoring solution 'thynC', the ring-type blood pressure monitor 'CartBP', and the continuous glucose monitoring system (CGMS) 'FreeStyle Libre'."

Fexuclu, a treatment for gastroesophageal reflux disease, recorded quarterly sales of 23.6 billion won, down 6.8% year-on-year but up 7.1% quarter-on-quarter. Shin noted, "Due to the volume-price linkage scheme, the top line declined sharply in the second quarter of last year, but quarterly growth has continued sequentially since then."

Nabota, the botulinum toxin product, achieved quarterly sales of 57.9 billion won, increasing both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter. By region, 10 billion won came from the domestic market and 47.9 billion won from exports. Shin said, "As the U.S. partner has revised down its guidance, it will be difficult for growth to continue at the previous high pace," adding, "However, this can be offset by expansion into new regions such as the Middle East and South America." He presented a full-year sales forecast for this year of 263.3 billion won.

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