Original Concor voluntarily reduced the price

Concor 5mg 200 won, Concor 2.5mg 120 won, lowest price

Similar to or cheaper than Elyson, the No. 1 generic company

Price reversal compared to 6 generics to increase market dominance

Concor (Bisoprolol fumarate), the original β-blocker antihypertensive drug, voluntarily lowered its drug price, gaining recognition and price competitiveness.

 

Many generic drugs are more expensive than original drugs, so marketing activities are expected to be difficult.

 

According to the industry on the 24th, the price of Concor 5mg will go down from next month from 222 won to 200 won.

 

The price of Concor 2.5mg will be reduced from 132 won to 120 won.

 

The company lowered the price itself.

 

Concor is a second-generation β-blocker that has been sold in Korea since 2001 and has established itself as a treatment for hypertension, angina pectoris, and chronic heart failure.

 

In particular, as the awareness of original products increases, there is a big gap with generic products.

 

As of last year, Concor's outpatient prescriptions amounted to 18.6 billion won.

 

Since 2020, Daewoong Pharmaceutical has exclusively sold the drug in Korea.

 

As the company's performance is sound and the market share of generic drugs is low, the market is also showing a skeptical response to the voluntary lowering of the drug price this time.

 

The fact that Elyson's lowest-priced generics continued to increase their market share was a potential cause for concern.

 

Bisoprolol fumarate 5mg has eight products, including Concor and Elyson Conbloc.

 

Previously, Concor and six generics were priced the same at 222 won, and only Conbloc 5mg was listed at 198 won.

 

For Bisoprolol fumarate 2.5mg, Elyson Conbloc 2.5mg was 124 won and Concor tablet 2.5mg was 132 won.

 

With this price cut, Concor narrowed the gap with Conbloc by 2 won in the 5mg product and became 4 won cheaper in the 2.5mg market.

 

Currently, in the generic market, all but Elyson are producing less than 1 billion won a year.

 

On the other hand, Conbloc, which boasts drug price competitiveness, is increasing every year to KRW 3.6 billion last year according to UBIST.

 

Conbloc is drawing an upward trend with 1.1 billion won in 2017, 1.8 billion won in 2018, 2.3 billion won in 2019, 2.9 billion won in 2020, 3.5 billion won in 2021, and 3.6 billion won in 2022.

 

Compared to Concor's performance of 18.6 billion won in 2022, there is still a gap.

 

However, Concor's 2022 performance is down 3% from the previous year.

 

If this trend continues, Conbloc's market share may increase and Concor's market share may decrease.

 

This drug price cut is interpreted as the intention of Concor to gain an absolute advantage in generic competition.

 

It is expected that the six generic companies, which had the same drug price as Concor, could suffer damage.

 

Previously, these six companies only produced less than 1 billion won per year, but it is expected that their market competitiveness will further weaken as the original drug price cut overlaps.

 

There is also a way to lower the price of the drug depending on the original, but in this case, it seems that it will worry about whether to continue the business because it comes back to the cost burden.

 

Elyson, which has put forward a low price, is expected to become a burden on marketing activities as the price becomes similar to the original.

 

It remains to be seen what effect the original drug's voluntary price cut will have on the market.