This undated photo, provided by Samsung Biologics, shows one of its three plants in Songdo, west of Incheon, South Korea.
SEOUL, Feb. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — Major South Korean drug and biopharmaceutical companies saw their sales surge in 2020 from a year earlier despite the coronavirus pandemic, industry sources said Monday.
Eleven local pharmaceutical companies in Asia’s fourth-largest economy, including Green Cross Corp. and biopharmaceutical behemoth Celltrion Inc., registered sales of more than 1 trillion won (US$910 million) last year.
The remainder are Kolmar Korea Co., Celltrion Healthcare Co., Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corp., Yuhan Corp., Kwangdong Pharmaceutical Co., Hanmi Pharm. Co. and Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co.
Test kit maker Seenene saw its 2020 sales rise nearly 10 times from a year earlier thanks to soaring demand due to the coronavirus outbreak, with its fourth-quarter top line alone reaching 442 billion won.
Contract manufacturing organization (CMO) giant Samsung Biologics, the biopharmaceutical arm of top conglomerate Samsung Group, posted sales of more than 1 trillion won for the first time since its inception in 2011.
Its 2020 sales spiked 66 percent from the previous year, with its fourth-quarter sales alone amounting to 375.3 billion won.
Celltrion and affiliate Celltrion Healthcare remained in the 1 trillion-won club last year, with their sales for the first three quarters alone surpassing the 1 trillion-won mark.
Chong Kun Dang saw is sales jump about 21 percent, with the top line of Green Cross climbing nearly 11 percent.
Despite the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, Hanmi Pharm. and Daewoong Pharmaceutical chalked up sales of more than 1 trillion won.
(Yonhap)
