Yuhan, GC Biopharma, Chong Kun Dang pharmaceutical, Daewoong Pharmaceutical, and Hanmi Pharmaceutical—Korea's five major traditional drugmakers—posted a combined revenue last year that neared 9 trillion won.
Yuhan said on the 11th that its annual revenue last year rose 5.7% from a year earlier to 2.1866 trillion won.
If combined with the revenues released recently by GC Biopharma (1.9913 trillion won), Chong Kun Dang pharmaceutical (1.6924 trillion won), Hanmi Pharmaceutical (1.5475 trillion won), and Daewoong Pharmaceutical (1.5708 trillion won), the five companies' total revenue comes to 8.9886 trillion won. That is up 8.92% from the prior year's combined revenue (8.2522 trillion won).
Daewoong, the holding company of Daewoong Pharmaceutical, recorded revenue of 2.0686 trillion won last year; applying that figure brings the five major drugmakers' total revenue last year to 9.4864 trillion won.
Samsung Biologics and Celltrion, leading domestic bio corporations, also opened the "4 trillion won in annual revenue era" for the first time last year. Samsung Biologics' revenue came to 4.5570 trillion won and Celltrion's to 4.1625 trillion won, with both companies setting all-time highs.
Major pharmaceutical and biotech corporations leading Korea's pharma-bio industry were assessed to have continued their top-line growth. However, there were differences in profitability indicators by company. Analysts said whether they have a profit structure that generates real cash in global markets is becoming the key factor separating performance.
◇ Global competitiveness separated profits
Among the five drugmakers, Yuhan and GC Biopharma ranked first and second in revenue last year, while Hanmi Pharmaceutical and Daewoong Pharmaceutical ranked first and second in operating profit.
Compared with the previous year's results for each company, Yuhan's operating profit increased 90.2%. Prescriptions for specialty drugs such as dyslipidemia treatments, hepatitis B treatments, and anticancer drugs expanded, driving growth, and in the fourth quarter last year, dosing of the lung cancer drug "Leclaza" began for patients in China, leading to receipt of about 64 billion won in milestones (stepwise license fees), which contributed to results.
GC Biopharma's revenue rose 18.5% and operating profit 115%. Operating profit had declined in 2023 and 2024, resulting in weak results, but profitability improved. Losses also narrowed, with last year's net loss coming to 26.1 billion won. The change is seen as driven by a larger share of overseas sales of high-margin products, including expanded sales in North America of the plasma-derived therapy "Albiglo."
Hanmi Pharmaceutical also grew both revenue and operating profit. The company's operating margin last year reached 16.7%. Its internally developed combo new drugs, including the dyslipidemia combo therapy "Rosuzet" and the hypertension drug "Amozaltan," showed steady sales growth, and out-licensing results to Merck (MSD) in the United States were reflected. Its China unit, Beijing Hanmi Pharmaceutical, topped 400 billion won in revenue for the first time. It held the No. 1 spot in Korea's out-of-hospital prescription market for eight straight years from 2018 through last year.
Daewoong Pharmaceutical increased revenue by 10.4% and operating profit by 33%. Its own new drugs and export items drove growth. Overseas sales expanded for high-margin products such as the gastroesophageal reflux disease drug "Fexuclu" and the botulinum toxin "Nabota."
By contrast, Chong Kun Dang pharmaceutical's revenue rose to 1.6924 trillion won, but operating profit fell to 80.6 billion won from a year earlier. The company said increased research and development costs and selling, general, and administrative expenses, as well as a reversal of last year's one-off factors, weighed on results. Compared with peers, the company's limited structure for recouping revenue through global license fees or overseas exports led to weaker profitability, according to assessments.
Samsung Biologics and Celltrion, Korea's leading bio corporations, both grew revenue and operating profit. Most of these corporations' global sales are received in dollars and euros, and analysts said a favorable exchange-rate environment also supported growth.
Celltrion expanded its lineup of biosimilar (biosimilar) products launched in global markets, while Samsung Biologics, which provides contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) for biopharmaceuticals, increased contract manufacturing by running all of its Plants 1–4.
Both companies raised their sales targets for this year. Celltrion set this year's sales target at around 5.3 trillion won, up 27% from last year, while Samsung Biologics guided to about 5.32 trillion won, up 15%–20% year over year. Samsung Biologics plans to leverage its overwhelming production capacity to win more CDMO contracts, and Celltrion will focus on expanding sales of high-margin product lines.
◇ Generic price cuts as a variable… polarization among corporations seen deepening
Comparing operating profit trends among major pharmaceutical and biotech corporations, analysts say that new drug development outcomes and securing stable cash flows in overseas markets are the keys to growth.
Industry watchers also expect the performance gap among pharmaceutical and biotech corporations to widen this year. That is because the government plans to begin full-fledged cuts to generic (copycat) drug prices in the second half. As a result, concerns are growing that corporations with a high share of domestic sales and reliance on generic portfolios will take a hit.
An industry official said, "These price cuts could do more than simply reduce sales; they could also negatively affect funding for research and development (R&D) investment."
To offset the shock of domestic price cuts and achieve growth, it is important to increase the share of internally developed new drugs and high-margin export items—like Hanmi Pharmaceutical's "Rosuzet," Daewoong Pharmaceutical's "Nabota," Yuhan's "Leclaza," and GC Biopharma's "Albiglo"—and to raise overseas market share.
An industry official said, "Although R&D expense is a burden on results, in the end R&D outcomes are returned through foreign-exchange gains and license-fee revenue, so strengthening R&D competitiveness is important."
The official said, "In particular, more than global expansion itself, whether a company has a profit structure that can generate stable cash flows in overseas markets is the phase that will determine results and corporate value," adding, "Even with the same sales growth, the gap will widen between corporations that translate it into global license fees or exports of high-margin products and those that do not."