$375M Drug Exports
Boryung Pharmaceutical Co., one of South Korea's largest pharmaceutical companies, has signed a contract worth 30 billion won (US$27.23 million) with Mexican pharmaceutical firm Stendhal International at the COEX in Samsung-dong, Seoul, on September 26 to supply its oral hypertension medication, such as Dukarb and Tuvero, to 25 countries, including Mexico.
It is an additional agreement following the US$56 million (62.1 billion won) export contract signed with Stendhal before. Accordingly, Boryung has won contracts worth 414.9 billion won (US$375.29 million) in total to export technologies and products of Kanarb, the nation's first new anti-hypertension drug, and its other family products over the last five years since 2011, including the latest contract.
Starting with exports of Kanarb to 13 countries in Central and South America in 2011, the company is now able to export all Kanarb products to Central and South America, including diuretics complex “Kanarb Plus” in 2013, amlodipine complex “Dukarb” released in August and hyperlipidaemia complex “Tuvero” scheduled to be launched in November, and the number of exporting countries has increased from 29 to 41.
Boryung’s success in Kanarb is based on 10 years of its steady investments in R&D and efforts to advance its technologies and products even after the release. After the company set up its hypertension treatment development plan in 1997, it found a candidate substance by synthesizing 500 types of derivatives in 1998. Then, Kanarb was approved by the government as the nation’s 15th new medicine and its very first homemade hypertension drug in 2010 after going through 10 years of clinical trials.
Boryung Pharmaceutical conducted phase 3 clinical trials at 24 hospitals across the country to obtain an official permission and phase 4 clinical trials on 14,000 patients in Korea to prove its efficacy and safety. The company also developed and released various complexes that include substances treating hyper blood pressure and hyperlipidemia and established “Kanarb family” lines. Through the Kanarb family, Boryung aims to turn over more than 200 billion won (US$180.34 million) every year at home and abroad.
Kanarb was ranked first in terms of weekly prescription rate in the cardiovascular and angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB)-class single-substance drug sector in Mexico in August 2015 in a year after it first released in the nation in 2014, expanding its presence in the local market quickly. It also took first place as a single-substance drug in ARB-class in Korea last year, recording 32.7 billion won (US$29.49 million) of the medical payments as of UBIST.