Boryung has become the first company to join the annual revenue 1 trillion won club since its establishment. This is a result of targeting the chronic disease market, including hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes, where the number of patients is increasing due to population aging.
Boryung noted that its consolidated revenue last year rose 18.3% year-on-year to 1.0171 trillion won. During the same period, operating profit increased by 3.2% to 70.5 billion won, while net income surged 81% to 72.8 billion won.
The company's growth is driven by chronic disease specialty pharmaceuticals, including new hypertension drugs.
A Boryung official said, "The growth of our hypertension new drug 'Canav Family' and other chronic disease specialty pharmaceuticals allowed us to achieve 1 trillion won in revenue for the first time," adding, "Products aimed at diabetes and dyslipidemia, which we are focusing on at an enterprise level, have successfully settled in the initial market and established themselves as growth items."
'Canav' is a locally developed hypertension drug, the 15th drug from Boryung launched in 2011. The Canav Family consists of combination drugs such as Ducab, Tubero, Dukaro, Akab, and Ducabplus. Canav's annual revenue surpassed 100 billion won for the first time in 2021, and it continued to grow, exceeding 150 billion won in 2023.
The diabetes treatment drug Trudaglu has claimed the top position in the dapagliflozin generic market since its launch in April 2023.
The joint sales and marketing of HK inno.N's gastroesophageal reflux disease new drug 'K-Cap' also contributed to external growth. Earlier, Boryung and HK inno.N began co-marketing their respective new drugs, Canav and K-Cap, from January last year. Boryung sells HK inno.N's K-Cap, while HK inno.N sells Boryung's Canav. K-Cap is a 'potassium competitive acid blocker (P-CAB)' medication, which has a faster effect and can be taken regardless of meal time, allowing it to rapidly dominate the market compared to existing proton pump inhibitors (PPIs).
However, annual operating profit and net income are at a level lower than the company's initially presented annual targets.
A company official explained, "Exchange rate fluctuations have caused variations in profits from imported raw material pharmaceuticals," adding that, "Last year, the emergency management system was initiated as many residents left in response to the domestic medical school expansion policy, leading university hospitals to reduce admissions and surgeries."
Boryung plans to focus on strengthening its internal management to grow both revenue and profitability this year. The company anticipates that increasing its market share in chronic disease areas with its own products and LBA products that have completed the transition to in-house production will contribute to profits. LBA (Legacy Brands Acquisition) refers to a strategy of acquiring original medicines that can maintain certain levels of revenue and market share based on high brand loyalty even after the expiration of patents.
Boryung has also stated plans to concentrate on establishing a foundation for medium-to-long-term growth through increased research and development investments aimed at new drug development and expanding its proprietary product line, as well as advancing its global contract development and manufacturing organization business.