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- 2026-03-19 04:06:25
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- General hospitals to prescribe obesity drug Qsymia
- by Eo, Yun-Ho Apr 23, 2020 06:27am
- Gaining popularity in the obesity treatment market, Qsymia has entered its prescription code in Korean general hospitals. According to pharmaceutical industry, Qsymia (phentermine hydrochloride plus topiramate), co-marketed by Alvogen Korea and Chong Kun Dang, has been recently passed by Drug Committees at the Big Fives including Severance Hospital and Seoul Asan Medical Center and other major institutes like Korea University Anam Hospital and Ajou University Hospital. Qsymia is available in four doses (3.75 mg/ 23 mg, 7.5 mg/ 46 mg, 11.25 mg/ 69mg, and 15mg/ 92mg) at a price of 4,000 won. The daily costs of Belviq, Contrav and Qsymia are about the same in Korea and the U.S. A clinical study on the drug has found Qsymia, compared to other FDA-approved long-term prescribed obesity treatments, demonstrated the most effective weight loss benefit and confirmed safety profile better than Saxenda and Contrav. The study conducted a retrospective meta-analysis on five weight loss medications, which analyzed 28 randomized clinical trials with 29,018 participants. Qsymia showed the highest efficacy in losing more than 5 percent of a person’s body weight, which Saxenda, Contrav, Belviq and Xenical followed after in the order. 54 percent, 34 percent, 30 percent, 25 percent and 20 percent of participants who were administered with Qsymia, Saxenda, Contrav, Belviq and Xenical, respectively, lost more than 10 percent of their body weight. Saxenda and Contrav had the highest risk of adverse reaction, while Belviq had the lowest. Qsymia’s risk in adverse reaction was about in the middle between Saxenda and Belviq. According to data published by UBIST, 310 million won and 614 million won worth of Qsymia were prescribed in last January and February, respectively. The drug’s prescription volume in February followed after Saxenda (875 million won), Dietamin (847 million won) and Hutermin (780 million won) in the market.
- Company
- Global companies made KRW 21M per employee last year
- by An, Kyung-Jin Apr 23, 2020 06:26am
- Korea Otsuka Pharmaceutical has generated the highest operating profit per employee last year among Korean branches of multinational pharmaceutical companies. Each employee at the multinational company has made 108 million won worth of operating profit. On Apr. 21, an analysis on 30 multinational pharmaceutical companies in Korea surveyed audit reports submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and found the companies operating profit per employee. Last year’s operating profit per employee in top multinational pharmaceutical companies (Unit: KRW 1 million) Source: FSS Last year, 30 Korean branches of multinational pharmaceutical companies have generated overall operating profit of 115.8 billion won with total 5,620 employees. Basically, respective employee has made average of 21 million won worth of operating profit, which is 10 million won less than in 2018 with 31 million won. Operating profit per employee in multinational companies in Korea is approximately a half of the figure in Korean pharmaceutical and bio companies. According to Daily Pharm’s survey on 30 companies with highest sales last year based on their business reports, each employee has generated average operating profit of 36.98 million won. Fundamentally, the pharmaceutical industry is considered as an industry with comparatively low operating profit. Its investment scale is exponential with R&D and sophisticated facilities, and the industry is actually labor-intensive with strong sales force. And Korean affiliates of multinational pharmaceutical companies have unique structure of supplying finished pharmaceutical product from overseas headquarters, which sometimes lowers profitability against sales volume due to high total cost of goods sold. Moreover, the profitability of many multinational companies in Korea is diminishing after their blockbuster drugs’ patents have expired, which also seems to have reduced operating profit per employee. Among the surveyed companies, only Korea Otsuka Pharmaceutical has made over 100 million won operating profit per employee. 357 employees of the multinational company combined have reached operating profit of 38.5 billion won. It adds to making operating profit of 108 million won per employee. Although the company’s healthcare product sales has been impacted by the Koreans boycotting Japanese goods, Korea Ostuka Pharmaceutical’s prescription drug sales has soared. First time since its establishment in Korea, its sales has marked 180 billion won and the operating profit was increased by 23.0 percent than the previous year. Korea Otsuka Pharmaceutical is one of a few multinational pharmaceutical companies with its own manufacturing facility in Korea. When Janssen Korea closes a plant in Hyangnam City, Korea Otsuka Pharmaceutical’s facility in Hyangnam City and Janssen Korea’s vaccine manufacturing plant in Songdo Bio Cluster would be the only two pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in Korea owned by multinational companies. Generating 91 million won per employee last year, UCB Korea was ranked on the second place. As of late last year, the company reported the total number of employees was 36. Although the operating profit has gone down by 8.4 percent (30 million won) compared to 35.88 million won in 2018, UCB Korea has continued to make surplus with a limited number of employees and maintained the relatively higher productivity. Stuck in the reds for three consecutive years, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has turned around and finally generated surplus last year and made 18 million won per employee. The operating profit per employee in AbbVie Korea, Janssen Korea, Sanofi Pasteur, Allergan Korea and Guerbet Korea has grown by over 10 million won last year compared to the previous year. On the other hand, Alcon Korea has made operating profit of 2 million won per employee last year, not even reaching 10 million won. Menarini Korea, Janssen Vaccines, Galderma Korea, Roche Korea and Merck KGaA have ended up making deficit last year. Excluding the companies in the reds, 11 out of 23 surveyed companies have made operating profit per employee last year lower than the year before. In 2018, Sandoz Korea marked the highest operating profit per employee with 178 million won, but the figure plummeted last year and marked 31 million won per employee. Plunged by approximately 40 million won from 112 million won in 2018, Kyowa Kirin Korea has only made 74 million won operating profit per employee last year. As for Genzyme Korea, the operating profit in 2018 was at 62 million won per employee, but the last year’s figure was omitted from the report due to the merge with Sanofi-Aventis.
- Company
- 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.
