SK Biopharmaceuticals logged its biggest results ever last year on the back of rising U.S. sales of the epilepsy drug Cenobamate (U.S. brand name XCOPRI).
SK Biopharmaceuticals said on Feb. 6 that its annual revenue last year rose 29.1% from a year earlier to 706.7 billion won, while operating profit jumped 111.7% to 203.9 billion won. Net profit increased 11.6% to 253.3 billion won.
U.S. sales of Cenobamate last year reached 630.3 billion won, up 43.7% from a year earlier. Other revenue, including royalties, came to about 27 billion won.
Fourth-quarter revenue was 194.4 billion won and operating profit was 46.3 billion won. Revenue increased 19.2% from the same period a year earlier, but operating profit fell 34.0%. The company said prescriptions for Cenobamate in the United States continued to rise in the fourth quarter, but U.S. sales were similar to the previous quarter due to year-end seasonality and the impact of inventory in transit.
According to the company, as of December last year, monthly prescriptions for Cenobamate in the United States totaled about 47,000. Total prescriptions in the fourth quarter increased 6.8% from the previous quarter and 29.2% from a year earlier.
SK Biopharmaceuticals is building a direct sales system in the U.S. market to drive prescription growth. It is pushing to expand use at the initial stage of prescribing by reviewing sales organization strategies and conducting marketing activities targeting medical professionals.
The company is also expanding research and development (R&D) investment based on cash flow generated by Cenobamate. It has completed the buildout of early pipelines in areas such as the central nervous system (CNS), radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT), and targeted protein degradation (TPD), and is pursuing the acquisition of related platform technologies.
A company official said, "As clinical trials for label expansion of Cenobamate enter the final stage, we have begun full-fledged development of new pipelines," and added, "We will continue research and development investment based on stable profit and cash flow."
SK Biopharmaceuticals is scheduled to hold a regular earnings conference call this morning to outline the status of its research and development pipeline and platform technology acquisition.