- Hitting a record high sale with business profits of KRW 106 billion and net profits of KRW 80.1 billion according to the accounting of 2022

- Not only stable positioning of Fexuclue but also achievement obtaining a permit of new medicine for Envlo

SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Daewoong Pharmaceutical (CEO Seng-ho Jeon, Chang-jae Lee) announced its 2022 annual report. On a standalone basis, sales increased from the previous year by 10.1% to KRW 1.16 trillion with business profits increased by 11.0% to KRW 106 billion and net profits increased by 123.9% to KRW 80.1 billion, respectively. Based on the consolidated accounting, sales recorded KRW 1.28 trillion, business profits KRW 95.8 billion and net profits KRW 76.1 billion.

The achievement is the result of stable growth in sales and business profits amid the upswing in export of Nabota, botulinum toxin of Daewoong Pharmaceutical, and settlement of Fexuclue, a new medicine for gastroesophageal reflux disease released last July, in the market.

In the ETC sector, sales increased by 6.1% from KRW 7.78 billion in the previous year to KRW 825.5 billion. Fexuclue, which was released in the middle of last year, successfully settled in the market by landing on major general hospitals across the country and reaching cumulative sales of KRW 10 billion in just four months while Ursa, the supplement to improve function of liver, also went on a fast track. The growth in the ETC sector is expected to surge as the prescription of Fexuclue for gastritis goes in full swing in the first half of this year and Envlo, a treatment for type Ⅱ diabetes and the 36^th new medicine in Korea, is released in the market.

Nabota, botulinum toxin, was sold for KRW 142 billion, an increase by 78.5% from KRW 79.6 billion in the previous year, with a growth over twice in overseas sales by 123.3%. In the US market, the world's largest market for botulinum toxin, the annual sales increased by 49% compared to the previous year, and in the largest continental markets such as Thailand and Brazil, it has positioned as the fastest-growing toxin brand. Daewoong Pharmaceutical expects to obtain a permit and advance into China this year and is planning to increase the global share of Nabota by rolling it out in countries with a proven high marketability such as Australia, Germany and Austria.

In the OTC sector, sales increased by 11.7% from KRW 114.4 billion in the previous year to KRW 127.7 billion. EZN 6, an antipyretic analgesic, has grown in sales amid the COVID 19 pandemic, along with EasyDerm, new moist dressing, Enerthistle, liver health functional food, sold in major supermarkets. Daewoong Pharmaceutical is planning to expand the related business territory by strengthening household medicines, medicines for prevention and improvement of aging-associated symptoms, and Senomega, which is a health supplement for blood circulation.

In the global and others ^[1] sector, sales recorded KRW 20.3 billion. Daewoong Pharmaceutical has signed a technical export agreement for a total of about KRW 1.2 trillion for Fexuclue, which obtained a permit of medicine in Philippine and Ecuador in the first year of release in the country, and plans to expand the partnership up to Europe and Russia.

Meanwhile, Daewoong Pharmaceutical invested KRW 139.3 billion, 12% of annual sales, into research and development, succeeding in developing a new medicine for two consecutive years from 2021 as a result. Envlo tablet obtained a permit of new medicine for treating diabetes with sodium glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors for the first time in the Korea among the pharmaceuticals in last November and was selected as the first company for Global Innovative products on Fast Track (GIFT) of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety by being recognized for the excellence and potential of the new medicine.

Fexuclue tablet, officially released in the country last July, has demonstrated its effect for improving the gastric mucosal lesion of acute and chronic gastritis for the first time among the domestic potassium-competitive acid blockers(P-CAB) in just one month of release in the market. Daewoong Pharmaceutical is planning to solidify the position of Fexuclue as the best-in-class medicine by adding the diseases for which it is efficacious and diversifying the form. Meanwhile, Nabota, which entered the European market last year, the world's second largest botulinum toxin market, is spurring its advance into the world disease cure market as the Korea's first pharmaceutical to do so after succeeding in phase 2 clinical trials for cervical dystonia in the US.

Daewoong Pharmaceutical stated that the previous year was the year in which Daewoong verified its ability in research and development by succeeding in developing new medicines for two consecutive years such as Fexuclue, which Daewoong developed, released and settled in the market, and Envlo, which Daewoong obtained a permit of new medicine for. Added that this year, Daewoong will position itself as a global healthcare group by growing its own troikas Daewoong developed by itself – Fexuclue, Envlo and Nabota – into a global blockbuster in new medicine.

^[1] Items that account for less than 10% of sales (e.g. consignment)