Korea Lilly, the Korean subsidiary of U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly and Company, posted its biggest results ever in 2025. Analysts say the obesity and diabetes drugs that are sweeping the world lifted overall performance.
According to Korea Lilly's audit report on the 3rd, sales in the domestic market last year jumped 193.6% from the previous year (164.2 billion won) to about 482.1 billion won. Operating profit was 37.1 billion won, up 259.2% from the previous year (about 10.3 billion won).
◇ Performance surges on Mounjaro…"short supply" in Korea, too
Behind Korea Lilly's sharp performance growth is "Mounjaro," launched in the Korean market in Aug. last year. In the United States, the diabetes treatment was released first in 2022 and 2023 under the product name Mounjaro, and the obesity treatment under the product name zepbound, before rising to become the world's No. 1 drug by sales.
In Korea, the product names for diabetes and obesity were unified at launch. Prescriptions for Mounjaro began on Aug. 21 last year. Even though it is a prescription-only medicine that requires a doctor's prescription, demand surged to the point of continued short supply in key doses immediately after launch.
Korea Lilly's net profit last year came to about 26.9 billion won. Profit before income tax expense was about 34.4 billion won. However, exchange rate fluctuations were also pronounced in non-operating gains and losses. While foreign exchange gains and translation gains came to around 5 billion won, foreign exchange losses and translation losses exceeded about 7 billion won.
The company's domestic market strategy can also be gleaned from the financial statements. Last year, inventories (merchandise) were about 187.8 billion won, up 268% from the previous year. It moved preemptively to secure volumes to meet soaring demand. Actual product purchases were 520.8 billion won, about four times the previous year.
Last year, 8.1 billion won was spent on academic research expenses and ongoing test research expenses, up more than 70% from the previous year. Donations were minimal relative to sales. Korea Lilly's donations last year totaled 1,020,390,909 won.
Industry officials expect Korea Lilly's growth, led by Mounjaro, to continue for the time being as the domestic market for obesity and diabetes treatments grows rapidly. However, if supply-demand imbalances persist due to expanding global demand, short supply could become a variable in the domestic market as well.
◇ Lilly, will investment in Korea continue to expand?
U.S.-based Eli Lilly and Company also recently signaled its intention to expand investment and collaboration in Korea. On the 3rd, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Eli Lilly and Company signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) "for the development of Korea's pharmaceutical and biotech industry and the promotion of public health," and said it would invest a total of $500 million in Korea over five years starting this year.
As part of that, it signed an open innovation partnership with Samsung Biologics and decided to establish a base for "Lilly Gateway Labs (LGL)" in Songdo, Incheon. LGL is a global open innovation program that Lilly launched to select and nurture outstanding biotech firms.
The LGL base to be set up in Korea is slated to be located in the new open innovation center "C-Lab Outside" within Samsung Biologics' Second Bio Campus in Songdo, Incheon, which is scheduled for completion in 2027. Outside the United States, it will be the second overseas LGL base after China. C-Lab Outside will have five above-ground floors and a total floor area of 12,000 square meters (about 3,500 pyeong).
In addition, it has continued collaboration for obesity drug production with SK pharmteco, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) subsidiary of SK Group. Recently, SK pharmteco began producing clinical active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for the development of next-generation glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) obesity treatments.
Eli Lilly and Company logged record results last year, with global annual sales rising 45% from the previous year to about $65.179 billion (about 98 trillion won). Separately from the U.S. headquarters, Korea Lilly's cash and cash equivalents totaled 154.8 billion won.