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- 2026-05-16 02:11:44
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- COVID-19 hinders Italian API distribution causing stock-out
- by Jung, Hye-Jin Apr 22, 2020 06:03am
- Due to temporary suspension of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) distribution amid COVID-19 pandemic, many drugs have been reportedly sold out. The industry experts see that the restricted international logistics of human and material resources during the pandemic has affected a number of drugs to be stocked out for a long and short term. The latest stock-out news was from Conjuran injection 2 ml/ 1s. Indicated for treating arthritis pain, the injection is manufactured by Pharma Research Product. But the company says the restock would only be feasible after May at earliest as importing API has gotten extremely difficult with COVID-19. The active pharmaceutical ingredient of Conjuran is imported from Italy. Pharma Research has said the production line has been halted for the entire month of April, because of the ingredient export from the country has been shut down. Kuhnil Pharm’s diuretic Amilo tablet has recently been sold out. Amilo imports its API from India and manufactures intermediate product in China before it is imported to Korea. And drug struggled with the outbreak spreading in China and the lock down in India. Artemisia Princeps leaf extract, widely used as gastrointestinal agent, has also recently came out of the woods. The distribution of the leaf extract was temporarily stopped from the production facility in China, due to COVID-19. However, the ingredient stock-out was shortly resolved and distribution to Korea resumed soon after. Other items, such as Ilsung Pharm’s Ilsung Isoptin (40 mg and 80 mg/ 250 and 30 tablet packages), LG Chem’s Ralobon Plus (60 mg/ 30 tablet package), Samjin Pharm’s Gelma Suspension, Yuhan’s MG TNA 1053 ml injection, have recently notified their temporary stock-out. The affected companies have commonly explained they are facing difficulties in importing active ingredients, which ultimately caused the stock-out. Although they cannot pinpoint at COVID-19 as a direct cause, the pharmaceutical companies view the outbreak has either directly or indirectly influenced the logistics between countries for past three months. A pharmaceutical industry insider commented, “Usually a drug stock-out is caused by a delay in finished product import, but lately it has been mostly caused by trouble in ingredient distribution.” “Nowadays, importing pharmaceutical ingredients from China, India and even from Europe has become unstable with the lock down orders,” the insider added.
- Company
- GSK Korea pays the highest average salary at KRW 136M
- by An, Kyung-Jin Apr 22, 2020 06:02am
- Among all Korean affiliates of multinational pharmaceutical companies, employees at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Korea have received the highest average salary of 136 million won. Employees working at Sanofi Pasteur, GSK Consumer Healthcare Korea, Galderma Korea, Allergan Korea, Boehringer Ingelheim Korea and AbbVie Korea have received average salary of over 100 million won. Average salary per employee at major multinational pharmaceutical companies in 2019 (Unit: 1 million won) Source: FSS On Apr. 18, an analysis of 31 audit reports submitted to Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) by multinational pharmaceutical companies found GSK’s average salary at 136 million won was the highest among the surveyed companies. The average salary per employee was calculated by dividing the total paid out salary of respective companies last year by the number of employees, confirmed in the audit report. The figures were found in the ‘selling and administrative expense’ section of the submitted reports excluding benefit expense, bonus, incentives and severance payment. The wages of Korea Otsuka Pharmaceutical and Janssen Korea’s facility staffs were calculated from production cost and the wages of clinical trial staffs were calculated from R&D cost. Compared to the year before, GSK’s overall employment salary in 2019 has gone down by 1.8 percent at 59.8 billion won. In 2019, total 444 employees were reportedly working at GSK. Although the overall salary payout was lower than the year before, the number of employees went down as well in 2019 by 14, which increased the average salary per employee by 1.3 percent. Continuing from 2017 to last year, GSK has topped the highest salary rank for the multinational pharmaceutical companies in Korea. Compared to the runner-up Sanofi Pasteur, the gap between the two top companies’ average salary per employee is approximately 17 million won, which has been narrowed slightly from the previous year. The employees at Sanofi Pasteur have been paid the average salary of 119 million won last year. The number of employees was reduced from 65 in 2018 to 61 in 2019, but the total salary has gone up by 1.1 percent, bring up the average salary by 7.7 percent compared to the year before. The report analysis confirmed the average salary per employee at GSK Consumer Healthcare Korea (113 million won), Galderma Korea (112 million won), Allergan Korea (107 million won) and AbbVie Korea (102 million won) exceeded over 100 million won. More than half of the companies, 19 out of 31 multinational companies have paid out average salary of over 80 million won. As for Sanofi-Aventis Korea, last year’s average salary per employee was at 68 million won, reduced by 11.0 percent compared to the previous year at 76 million won. The multinational company has merged with Genzyme Korea last year and the number of employees has surged by 64 from 442 to 506. Considering the overall salary payout has gone up only by 1.9 percent from 33.73 billion won in 2018 to 34.37 billion won in 2019, the average salary per employee has technically gone down. However, the net pay per employee could have gone up depending on their respective performance. Sanofi-Aventis reported last year that it paid out bonus and extra pay (1 billion won) and incentives (2.6 billion won), besides the overall salary of 34.4 billion won, as personnel expenses. The employees at Genzyme Korea have received average salary of 73 million won last year, and the yearly comparison data is unavailable since the merge with Sanofi-Aventis. Among all 31 companies, employees at Janssen Vaccines have been paid the least with average salary of 4 million won. According to the report, the company has paid out overall 647 million won as personnel expenses for 145 employees, reported as of late last year. Since 2016, Janssen Vaccines has been in the red for four consecutive years. Regardless, the reported total personnel expenses are questionable, as the company intends to minimize operating personnel and reduce production volume while reorganizing the anticancer treatment and next-generation vaccine production lines. Moreover, the analysis is likely to be inaccurate in parts, because calculating the average salary by dividing the selling and administrative expense by the number of employees would not fully reflect the accurate figures of companies with production facility in Korea like Korea Otsuka Pharmaceutical and Janssen Korea, as they reflect the facility employee wage as production cost. Spun off from Pfizer Korea last year, Pfizer Upjohn Korea has reported overall personnel expenses of 15 billion won. Dividing the total by the number of employee reported late December, the 264 employees have received average salary of 57 million won per person. But as the report omitted the figures before the spin-off (May 27, 2019), the actual figure could differ from their net pay. Last year, Pfizer Korea has paid approximate average salary of 92 million won per employee, slightly lower than 97 million won in 2018 before the split with Pfizer Upjohn Korea.
- Company
- Lipitor tops outpatient market again amid COVID-19
- by Chon, Seung-Hyun Apr 21, 2020 06:27am
- The 2019 novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) seems to not have affected the top outpatient prescription drug rank in Korea. Dyslipidemia treatment Lipitor remained on the top of the leader board with a big gap. The prescription volumes of anticancer Tagrisso and cholesterol-lowering combination drug Rosuzet have also continued to skyrocket. But off-patent drugs that grew significantly in volume last year, actually showed an underwhelming growth. According to pharmaceutical industry research firm UBIST on Apr. 20, Pfizer’s dyslipidemia treatment Lipitor has made 47 billion won in the first quarter of the year, topping the outpatient prescription volume rank. Although the volume was 0.2 percent lower than last year’s first quarter, it easily defended the top place with almost double the volume of runner-up Tagrisso and Gliatamine. Comparison of prescription volume of major outpatient prescription drugs in first quarters of 2020 and 2019 (Source: UBIST) Lipitor, released in the Korean market in 1999, has been prescribed the most to outpatients for two consecutive years from 2018 to 2019. AstraZeneca’s anticancer treatment Tagrisso shined through in the market and ranked itself on the second place with 23.9 billion won in the quarter, surging by 18.2 percent from the previous year. It was exceptional for an anticancer treatment, mostly used for inpatient, to be ranked so close to the top. Tagrisso by AstraZeneca Tagrisso is a second-line therapy prescribed to patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), who have developed resistance in existing epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR TKIs), such as Iressa, Tarceva and Giotrif. Overcoming the drug resistance issue, the drug has been labeled as a third-generation. Tagrisso’s prescription volume has been surging since it was listed for National Health Insurance (NHI) reimbursement in December 2017. The treatment’s outstanding effect, compared to other alternative options, and administrative convenience have seemingly accelerated the prescription volume growth. Rosuzet by Hanmi Pharmaceutical Skyrocketed by 27.4 percent from last year, Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s Rosuzet has achieved the highest annual growth among others reaching the prescription volume of 22.8 billion won in the first quarter this year. A rosuvastatin plus ezetimibe dyslipidemia-treating combination drug, Rosuzet was released to the market in late 2015. After acquiring the rights over ezetimibe from the patentee MSD, Hanmi Pharmaceutical was able to enter the market faster than other competitors and it has been predominantly leading the same-substance market ever since. The combination drug has made 81 billion won from prescription last year. Taking the rapid growth of Rosuzet into account, the sources even project the drug could be the first Korean-made drug to surpass annual prescription volume of 100 billion won. LG Chem’s combination agent diabetes drug Zemimet has made 15.6 billion won in the first quarter last year, and the volume was increased by 18.8 percent this year at 18.5 billion won. Zemimet has combined Zemiglo, a new diabetic drug with DPP-4 inhibitor solely developed by LG Chem, and metformin. A combination agent for dyslipidemia Atozet showed a 20.8-percent growth in prescription over a year and generated 17.9 billion won in the first quarter. Released by MSD in 2015, Atozet is an atorvastatin plus ezetimibe combination drug. Currently, Chong Kun Dang holds the co-sales deal signed by the multinational company. In the first quarter, off-patent drugs have shown stagnant growths. Boehringer Ingelheim’s hypertension treatment Twynsta has generated 23.6 billion won and made only 1.7-percent growth from the year before. The prescription volume of Sanofi’s anticoagulant drug Plavix grew 1.7 percent from the year before and marked 23.6 billion won in the quarter. Compared to last year, AstraZeneca’s dyslipidemia treatment Crestor and Gilead’s Viread have recorded 5.8 percent and 26.5 percent decrease in prescription volumes, respectively. The prescription volumes of Eisai’s Alzheimer’s disease treatment Aricept and of Astellas’ benign prostatic hyperplasia treatment Harnal-D also had each dropped by 5.7 percent and 8.5 percent. Except for Viread, these off-patented originals had a significant surge in prescription last year. In 2019, Lipitor has grown 8.4 percent from the year before and generated 176.2 billion won. Plavix’ prescription volume reached 88.9 billion won last year with 17.3 percent surge from the year before. Some original drugs like Crestor and Arisept marked a 10-percent growth in prescription volume last year, when Harnal-D also grew by 6.5 percent. However, the research firm analyzed the originals’ prescription volumes have diminished this year as the generics have performed better. The industry views that the continuous spread of COVID-19 has influenced the outpatient prescription market. When the multinational pharmaceutical companies preemptively stopped visiting healthcare institutes due to the outbreak, the Korean pharmaceutical companies could have persuaded the prescribers to switch to generics.
- Company
- Bridion generic makers lose patent dispute after all
- by Kim, Jin-Gu Apr 20, 2020 06:34am
- Product image of Bridion Indicated for the reversal of neuromuscular blockade in people undergoing surgery, MSD’s Bridion (sugammadex) has successfully defended its patent rights. On Apr. 17, the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board has ruled favorable for the original patentee MSD over a patent dispute with CTC BIO. A pharmaceutical market research firm IQVIA reported, Bridion, indicated for the reversal of neuromuscular blockade induced by rocuronium bromide and vecuronium bromide in adults undergoing surgery, has generated approximately 38.0 billion won in Korea last year. ◆After an appeal, generic loses the patent battle at last MSD has released and patented the drug in 2013. The patent term would expire on Apr. 12, 2022. Many of Korean pharmaceutical companies have challenged against the patent. The first trial was to invalidate the patent. In March and April of 2015, nine companies including Navi Pharm, Kukje Pharm, Hana Pharm, Intro Pharm Tech, Han Wha Pharma, Huons, Dream Pharma, Chong Kun Dang, and BC World Pharm have filed the invalidation trial. But BC World Pharm, Dream Pharma, Navi Pharm and Kukje Pharm have immediately withdrew the case. First, the original patentee has won the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board. But in January 2017, Chong Kun Dang, Huons, Intro Pharm Tech and Hana Pharm have filed an appeal against the ruling to the Patent Court. However, the Court also ruled against the generic makers. ◆Retried with different approaches but dropped the case after the Supreme Court’s ruling The Korean companies’ patent challenge did not stop there. Instead of invalidation, they tried to take down Bridion’s patent by requesting a negative confirmation of scope. Accordingly in March of 2018, Chong Kun Dang, Daewoong Pharmaceutical and CTC BIO have requested a negative scope confirmation. Their case claimed a part of the extended substance patent term is not covered by the patent scope. During the proceeding of the case, the Supreme Court has made a crucial decision on the Solifenacin (vesicare) case, which would significantly affect the Bridion case. The Supreme Court has ruled that a generic with modified salt base infringes the original’s extended patent term. Afraid the court’s decision has set a precedent, the Korean pharmaceutical industry was swayed and most of them interpreted it negatively. Ultimately, Chong Kun Dang and Daewoong Pharmaceutical withdrew the case in January and November of 2019, respectively. ◆The original wins at the final trial, patent to be protected until its expiration Regardless of others giving up on the patent dispute, CTC BIO continued its lone tough journey. However, the Supreme Court’s decision has already been set as a precedent. The Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board has ruled against the Korean company on Apr. 17. Sources report the company would unlikely to file another appeal. The generic maker does not see another approach to further battle against Bridion. Since the Supreme Court’s ruling, the negative confirmation of scope on modified salt base drug has become useless. And the Korean company has already lost the appeal on the invalidation case. Sources predict Bridion would likely to have its patent protected until April 2022.
- Company
- Half of multinational companies in Korea restructured 2019
- by An, Kyung-Jin Apr 20, 2020 06:30am
- Apparently, one out of two multinational pharmaceutical companies in Korea has downsized last year. The outcome contrasts with Korean pharmaceutical and bio companies that have increased employment in the same time, despite the worsened profitability. Analyzing audit reports submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on Apr. 16, 13 out of 29 multinational pharmaceutical companies in Korea have reported lessened number of employees last year than in the year before. Except for three companies without a change in employment size, basically a half of multinational companies in Korea have reduced the employment. From the end of 2018 to the end of 2019, Galderma Korea’s number of employee has dropped the most from 94 to 73 with a one fifth cut. After hiring 99 employees in 2014, the company has maintained the size for about four years, but the number has dipped significantly in about a year. After the appointment of General Manager Rene Wipperich at the Korean affiliate in August 2018, Galderma Korea has offered early retirement programs twice and the employment number has fallen. The company reported it has been in the red since 2015. Changes in employment size in 29 major multinational pharmaceutical companies (Unit: Number of employee) Source: Financial Supervisory Service In general, the multinational companies with underwhelming performance have restructured. Janssen Vaccines has maintained the same number of employees from 2018 to 2019, but the number actually halved from five years ago at 296. Janssen Vaccines’ performance has been stagnating for a while. Since it made operating loss of 20.9 billion won in 2016, the company has been in the red for four consecutive years. The sales have been rapidly falling from 99 billion won in 2016 to 42.7 billion won and 27.6 billion won in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and at last, the company has made no profit last year. The company plans to operate in minimal human resources until it finishes refining anticancer and next generation vaccine production line. It also has opened an opportunity for employees to request for transfer after it closes the Hyangnam manufacturing facility in 2021. Other multinational companies had changes in employment size while reorganizing the businesses. Even Pfizer Korea, currently with the highest number of employees among multinational pharmaceutical companies in Korea, has downsized slightly in a year. In last May, the company has transferred 264 employees to its spin-off company Pfizer Upjohn Korea. The number of total employee in both Pfizer Korea and Pfizer Upjohn Korea combined was 724, with 10 employees less than the year before. Regardless of business restructuring, some companies have increased the number of employees. Although Merck Korea has closed GM sector last year, the company has hired 22 more by the end of the year, reaching the total of 339 employees. The figure was not drastically affected as only a handful applied for the ERP and the number of employees of other non-pharmaceutical sectors like Life Science or Performance Material sectors easily outnumbers that of the Biopharmaceutical sector. Not all Korean affiliates have reduced employment size. As of late December last year, the 29 multinational pharmaceutical companies had 6,884 employees in total, which was 170 more than 6,714 employees in the year before. Among the 29 companies analyzed, Sanofi-Aventis Korea has reportedly hired new employees the most. In last June, Sanofi has legally finalized the merge with Genzyme Korea. As of last December, Sanofi-Aventis Korea had 64 more employees than the year before and had total of 506 employees. Considering Genzyme Korea had 53 employees as of last 2018, the number of employees has increased over a year. Sanofi-Aventis has shown outstanding performance by combining Genzyme Korea’s performance from the latter half of last year. Over the year, the sales has increased by 17.7 percent, marking 438.3 billion won, and operating profit reached 34.8 billion won with 68.4 percent surge. Number of employees in major multinational pharmaceutical companies in Korea as of last 2019 (Unit: Number of employee) Source: Financial Supervisory Service Except for Pfizer Korea and Pfizer Upjohn Korea, Bayer Korea has the highest number of employees as of late 2019. From late 2018 to late 2019, Bayer Korea has downsized from 588 to 562 with 26 less employees, but it still has the highest number of employees as a multinational pharmaceutical company in Korea. Novartis Korea reported it has 542 employees as of last 2019.
- Company
- Pfizer Korea Upjohn, last year's sales were ￦385.8 billion
- by Kim, Jin-Gu Apr 20, 2020 06:30am
- It was confirmed that the annual sales of Pfizer Korea Upjohn, which was split from Korea Pfizer Pharmaceuticals last year, amounted to ￦385.8 billion. Korea Pfizer Pharmaceuticals(￦395.7 billion) is not much different. Considering that Pfizer and the Pfizer Upjohn have a global sales ratio of 8 to 2, the sales share of Pfizer Upjohn in Korea is high. According to the audit report of Pfizer Korea Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer Korea Upjohn submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service on the 9th, the sales of the two companies over the past year (December 2018 to November 2019) totaled a total of ￦745.5 billion. The fiscal year of Pfizer Korea Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer Korea Upjohn is November, and the results are calculated from December of the previous year to November of this year. Of these, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals' sales were ￦395.7 billion. This is a 7.2% increase from 2018's ￦369.1 billion. It recorded an operating loss of ￦1.1 billion. However, in 2018, the operating loss decreased from ￦2.3 billion. The sales of Pfizer Korea Upjohn were ￦385.8 billion. This sales amount is calculated by adding the sales of the patent expiration business departement to ￦205.8 billion and the sales from May 27, 2019 to November 30, 2019, to be ￦ 179.9 billion. This is an increase of 5.6% compared to ￦365.3 billion in 2018. Operating profit was ￦15.8 billion before division and ￦5.4 billion after the division, operating profit fell to a third. Sales of Pfizer Korea in the past 5 years (Unit: ￦100 million, The FSS) The size of Pfizer Korea Upjohn with annual sales of ￦385.8 billion is comparable to that of domestic mid-sized pharmaceutical companies. The share of sales between Pfizer Korea and Pfizer Korea Upjohn is equal to 50.6% versus 49.4%. Considering that Pfizer Korea Upjohn deals only with patent-expired drugs, industry officials say that sales proportion is unusually high. This is analyzed because of the characteristics of the Korean market with high original loyalty. The representative example of Pfizer Korea Upjohn is Lipitor. Since its launch in 1999, Lipitor has been ranked first and second in outpatient prescriptions. Lipitor's 10mg insurance price was cut from ￦1241 to ￦644 in 2007, and as the patent expired in 2009, more than 130 generic products were released, but Lipitor’s prescription amount increased. Last year, Lipitor had the most outpatient prescriptions. It was prescribed ￦176.2 billion, an increase of 8.4% from ￦162.6 billion in 2018. The share of sales in Pfizer Korea Upjohn, which is the highest in Korea, is also confirmed by comparison with global. According to a 2019 report released by Pfizer earlier this year, Pfizer's global sales last year were $51.7 billion (about ￦63 trillion). Of these, Pfizer Korea Upjohn's sales are $10.2 billion (about ￦12 trillion). The proportion is only 19.8%. Global and Pfizer Korea vs. Pfizer Korea Upjohn sales share. Pfizer Korea UpjohnPreviously, Pfizer divided Pfizer Korea Upjohn on May 27 last year. The key is to manage patent expiration drugs by Pfizer Korea Upjohn. Representative items such as Lipitor, Novasc (Amlodipine), and Celebrex (Celecoxib) have been moved to the Pfizer Korea Upjohn. The newly established division, Pfizer Korea Upjohn, plans to merge with Mylan and change its name to Viatris and start again by September.
- Company
- Twice-delayed amid COVID-19 Cancer Committee rescheduled
- by Eo, Yun-Ho Apr 17, 2020 06:22am
- The Cancer Deliberation Committee’s meeting, postponed twice already, has been rescheduled. The Korean pharmaceutical industry sources reported the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) has decided to resume the Cancer Deliberation Committee’s talks on expanding anticancer treatment coverage on Apr. 29. Amid COVID-19 outbreak, the committee’s earlier meeting schedule has been postponed on Feb. 26 and on Apr. 8. In February, the committee was supposed to review major items like AstraZeneca’s targeted therapy Tagrisso (osimertinib) and Ono Pharmaceutical and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (BMS) immunotherapy Opdivo (nivolumab). And in the April agenda, reviews on BMS’ multiple myeloma treatment Revlimid (lenalidomide) and MSD’s immunotherapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab) were initially included. However, the delayed meeting schedule would add more items on the committee’s agenda, and likely to put off some items to May agenda depending on their priority level. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) Tagrisso has an ongoing deliberation over expanding its reimbursed indication to cover a first-line treatment for patients with EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). PD-1 inhibitor Opdivo has a number of indications seeking for reimbursement, such as renal cell carcinoma-treating first-line combination therapy with Yervoy, second-line treatment for renal cell carcinoma, second-line treatment for relapsed or metastatic head neck squamous cell carcinoma, and second-line treatment for classical Hodgkin’s disease. But, the controversial indication as a second-line treatment for NSCLC regardless of expression of PD-L1 was omitted from the application. Moreover, Revlimid was targeting reimbursement expansion on its maintenance treatment indication as a monotherapy, and Keytruda’s reimbursement expansion application included an indication as a first-line treatment for NSCLC, bladder cancer and Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which have been denied previously, but also included two new indications—first-line treatment for metastatic non-squamos NSCLC as a combination therapy with pemetrexed and platinum chemotherapy, and first-line treatment for metastatic squamous NSCLC as combination therapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel.
- Company
- Merck's retirement allowance of ￦9.3 billion last year
- by An, Kyung-Jin Apr 17, 2020 06:21am
- Retirement benefits and # of employees in Merck Korea 2009-2019 Merck KGaA spent nearly 10 billion won last year as employee severance pay. With the sale of two types of hypertension and diabetes treatments, retirement payments related to restructuring jumped four times from the previous year. According to Merck KGaA's audit report submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service on the 14th, last year, it paid ￦9.4 billion in retirement benefits. This is an increase of 303.3% compared to the previous year's retirement allowance of ￦2.3 billion. Since 2009, Merck KGaA has introduced the retirement pension system and recognized the contributions to be paid during the annual accounting period as retirement benefits. Starting with ￦1 billion in 2009, the amount of retirement benefit recognition increased, and the retirement benefit in 2018 was about ￦2.3 billion. In the audit report, Merck KGaA said, "In the current period, we set the unpaid expenses related to restructuring. The retirement benefit recognized in relation to the restructuring was ￦6.87 billion." The retirement expenditure increased by ￦7 billion from the previous year as the General Medicine (GM) division, which was in charge of treating hypertension and diabetes last year, was reorganized and restructured. The retirement benefit spent by Merck KGaA last year is equivalent to the cumulative amount of retirement benefit paid for five years from 2014 to 2018. In last November, Merck KGaA officially reorganized the GM business division by announcing that it signed a sales contract with GC Pharma for the treatment of diabetes, 'Glucophage'. Subsequently, Daewoong Pharmaceutical announced the signing of a sales contract for hypertension treatment 'Concor' and the time to organize the divisions was set at the end of November. From January of this year, GC Pharma and Daewoong Pharmaceutical are in charge of sales activities such as promotion of each product and operation of sales personnel. Merck KGaA Biopharmaceuticals decided to keep only the licenses for the items, and the existing sales and marketing personnel went through restructuring procedures. At that time, Merck KGaA was reported to have provided GM employees with the number of working years X2 months + 8 months' salary. In addition, it has attached a clue that it can receive ￦20 million annually or receive a lump sum ￦20 million for two years for the cost of a master's degree such as an MBA. It was confirmed that 24 people out of 35 employees belonging to the GM business division were resigned after receiving the ERP application in a total of two cases, and 11 people are currently discussing conversion arrangements. The number of employees increased regardless of the restructuring. According to the audit report, as of 2019, the number of employees at Merck KGaA was 339, an increase of 22 from 317 last year. In addition to the biopharma division that is in charge of the pharmaceutical industry within the Merck Group, it is the number of employees from other departments such as Merck Life Sciences and Merck Functional Materials. An official from Merck KGaA Biopharmaceutical said, “11 out of 35 employees belonging to the GM division received an order from the Seoul branch because they did not apply for ERP. We are considering various methods including supporting other departments. "By looking at the number of biopharma employees, it has decreased from 125 at the end of 2019 to 102 at present." The company turned to a deficit last year with an operating loss of ￦3.2 billion. During the same period, sales were ￦269.8 billion, an increase of 9.1% from the previous year's ￦247.3 billion.
- Company
- Multinational companies show significant gap in performance
- by An, Kyung-Jin Apr 17, 2020 06:21am
- Multinational pharmaceutical companies in Korea showed drastically polarized performance last year. Their revenue fluctuated depending on how well the emerging driving forces took over the position of now-off-patent blockbuster drugs. Most of the companies had a drop in operating profit, but companies like Alcon, AbbVie and Sanofi-Aventis have successfully killed two birds with one stone expanding business and improving profit growth by changing up their top selling product line-ups. Analyzing last year’s performance of 28 multinational pharmaceutical companies in Korea on Apr. 14, the last year’s gross operating profit reached 165.4 billion won, which was 7.0 percent less than the year before at 178.0 billion won. And the last year’s gross revenue at 5.27 trillion won was 6.3 percent more than the year before. Meanwhile, the operating margin was decreased by 0.5 percent from 3.6 percent to 3.1 percent. The summary is based on 26 audit reports submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) until Apr. 13 by Korean branches that settled the accounts in December. Although Servier Korea settled the account in September, their data was included. Despite Pfizer Korea and Pfizer Upjohn Korea settled the account in November, their data was dropped from the analysis due their split affecting the data. Apparently, the performances between companies varied significantly. 13 out of 26 companies had over 10 percent jump in revenue. Alcon Korea’s revenue last year skyrocketed by over 60 percent and showed the biggest increase rate among the companies. The company’s record high sales performance was possible due to the revised eye drop pricing system surging the prescription volume in sodium hyaluronate-based Kainix eye drop. Their operation profit finally turned around and generated surplus after three years in the red. Both sales revenue and operating profit in AbbVie Korea showed 43 percent surge. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment Mavyret, released in the fourth quarter of 2018, outdid other competitors and took up 80 percent of the total HCV prescription market. The treatment has expanded the business for AbbVie and improved profitability in the market. The revenue growths in Novo Nordisk (24.5 percent), Sanofi-Aventis Korea (17.7 percent), Janssen Korea (17.5 percent), Lundbeck Korea (15.9 percent), Teva-Handok (15.5 percent), Roche Korea (15.5 percent) and AstraZeneca Korea (14.6 percent) were recorded relatively high. Due to the effect of Pfizer Korea’s split-off, Novartis Korea has topped the multinational pharmaceutical sales revenue rank after seven years since 2012. Marked at 493.4 billion won, Novartis Korea’s revenue last year was 4.1 percent more than the year before. For the first time in Korea, Novartis has generated almost 500 billion won with new line-ups like chronic heart failure treatment Entresto and antipsoriatic Cosentyx firmly taking roots in their respective markets, while the company’s major line-ups line macular degeneration treatment Lucentis, ARB-based hypertension treatment Exforge and leukemia treatment Glivec maintained their growth in revenue. Also maintaining two-digit revenue growth for another consecutive year, AstraZeneca Korea’s annual revenue last year has generated over 400 billion won for the first time in Korea. Top profit-making multinational pharmaceutical companies in Korea based on last year’s revenue (Unit: KRW 100 million) Source: Financial Supervisory Service On the other hand, most of the companies without other means of revenue source besides their off-patent drugs have experienced a steep fall in operating profit. The operating profits of 15 out of 28 companies either fell or maintained the deficit, which means one out of two multinational pharmaceutical companies in Korea is struggling to make profit. Janssen Vaccines that used generate over 300 billion won annually, manufacturing and selling vaccines, has made no profit in Korea last year. Marking operating loss at 31.6 billion won last year, the company has recorded four consecutive years of deficit. The company’s main source of revenue has been cut as the demands on hepatitis B virus vaccine Hepavax-Gene and pentavalent vaccine Quinvaxem took a drastic fall. Although excluded from the analysis, Pfizer Korea’s sales volume has halved as it underwent a split-off with Pfizer Upjohn Korea. Spinning off an off-patent drug business sector, Pfizer Korea has generated 395.7 billion won last year with 7.2 percent increase from the year before, leveling neck and neck with Bayer Korea (374.1 billion won). Pfizer Korea’s performance contrasted with Pfizer Upjohn Korea that recorded operating loss of 1.1 billion won and operating profit of 5.4 billion won in the first year of the split. In last year, Kowa Korea Company has made 18.2 percent less than the year before. Ruling out Janssen Vaccine making no profit at all, Kowa Korea Company has made the least amount of sales volume. Their operating loss was at 1.8 billion won, turning back into the red after a year in the black. GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Korea has stagnated as its revenue and operating profit respectively have dropped by 11.6 percent and 9.7 percent drop, compared to the year before. Against the year before, last year’s operating profits were dropped by over 20 percent in Novartis Korea (85.8%), Bayer Korea (40.9%), Boehringer Ingelheim (24.7%), Novo Nordisk (33.7%), Kyowa Kirin Korea (35.%) and Sandoz Korea (84.7%). Both Roche Korea and Merck were turned into the red, whereas Menarini Korea continued to stay in the red.
- Company
- KRPIA and members clash over Sean Kim’s resignation
- by Eo, Yun-Ho Apr 16, 2020 06:36am
- Apparently, the multinational pharmaceutical companies in Korea have disputed KRPIA’s approval on the resignation of Senior Director Sean Kim. The pharmaceutical industry sources reported Sean Kim, a Senior Director of Market Access and Healthcare Policy at Korean Research-based Pharmaceutical Industry Association (KRPIA), has expressed his intention to resign and CEO Lee Youngshin has made a discretionary approval on his resignation with her delegated authority. Senior Director Kim has been decided to leave the organization on Apr. 17. The decision was called without consulting with KRPIA Board of Directors (BOD), consisting of member companies’ leaders, and the organization has not officially announced the news, yet. Caught up with the news late, KRPIA Market Access and Healthcare Policy (MA and HC Policy) Committee and Regulatory Affairs Committee have requested an explanation from the organization and 20 or so members of the committee and the CEO were convened on Apr. 14 for an online meeting. However, the organization official did not specify Senior Director Kim’s reason for resignation at the meeting and left it as ‘personal matter.’ The sources confirmed CEO Lee has apologized for the lack of communication when processing the resignation and briefed their plan to recruit a successor in June, if feasible. Senior Director Sean Kim◆Question One: Was it a proper processing of resignation? The main complaint of the MA and HC Policy Committee and Regulatory Affairs Committee on the Senior Director’s resignation is the process. As stated above, the senior director’s resignation was approved discretionarily by CEO Lee. According to the KRPIA regulation, the CEO has a rightful authority over personnel, which means it was processed by the book. However, the point of issue lies on how a resignation of a board member-level Senior Director Kim, a major decision-maker of the organization, has been approved without prior discussion with the BOD. And the organization’s lack of official notice to the member companies on the matter has fired up the industry’s backlash. Senior Director Kim has served in the government policy sector for eight years since 2012, and led most of government affairs and communication efforts regarding drug pricing system reform. He also took a crucial role in the Korean government making decisions on expanding eligible subject for risk sharing agreement (RSA) and applying RSA on follow-on drugs. KRPIA and the member companies would take a heavy blow without a MA and HC Policy expert like Senior Director Kim or the former CEO Lee Sang Suk with actual experience in a government agency. The member companies argue, regardless of the CEO’s authority, the resignation approval should have been finalized after a thorough discussion and internal communication. An insider of a multinational company commented, “It is quite disappointing to find out about Senior Director Kim’s resignation not through the organization, but through word of mouth. His experience and expertise are unmatched, and the industry is imminently facing a crucial government announcement regarding the drug pricing system revision. We need the organization’s proper explanation and their prospective plan.” ◆ Question Two: Was his resignation ‘voluntary?’ Another point of the dispute is unclear reason and background of the senior director’s resignation. For the organization members, the Kim’s resignation was completely unexpected, raising a few questions to the story. Senior Director Kim has inked a contract with KRPIA in last December that extended his term for two years until November 2021. After signing the contract, he was at MA and HC Policy Committee meeting in January and vowed that he would “retire honorably in 2021 after putting all efforts to contribute in protecting appropriate pricing for new drugs and in expanding coverage until the end of the term.” In other words, he had no other reason to resign except for his health issue. This is also why no one in the industry saw his resignation coming. And the question still remains and it even brews other suspicion as to what internal discrepancy or pressure could have been the real reason behind it. Another associate of a multinational company said, “His reinstatement should be considered depending on the situation, although his intent should come first in making the decision. If there was an unfair treatment, then it should be corrected. Most of government affairs associates in the industry are hoping for him to return.”
