Daewon Pharmaceutical said it has won approval from the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation for Pelubi, its non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), and will launch it under the brand name Pelubio.
Daewon will produce Pelubi at its plant in Gyeonggi Province and export it to Russia. Pharmstandard, the second-largest pharmaceutical distributor in Russia, will market the product using its strong distribution power, the Korean company added.
Daewon plans to start shipping three million tablets in the first half of this year and increase the volume according to market demand. The company also signed an export contract for a sustained-release (SR) tablet version of Pelubi and plans to start exporting it as soon as possible after undergoing local clinical trials.
Russia makes it mandatory for all export products to conduct local clinical trials and makes due diligence of production facilities quite difficult. Therefore, the share of raw material export is much higher than that of finished drugs to the country.
Daewon has been paying attention to Russia as a typical pharmerging market that has grown at an annual rate of 12.8 percent to 26 trillion won ($2.1 billion), the largest in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The market size of NSAIDs is about 550 billion won, and the demand is increasing.
The company plans to establish and develop various marketing strategies suitable for local circumstances, including holding a symposium in Russia timed with the product’s release.
Daewon also plans to market the treatment in neighboring countries, such as Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia.
“Our export to Russia is meaningful by promoting Korea’s new drugs abroad and proving their excellence through local clinical trials. As a result, we expect to exhibit sufficient competitiveness in the global market,” Daewon Pharmaceutical Vice President Paik Seung-yeol said. “Using the Russian market as a base, we will continue to expand export channels to other pharmerging markets in Central Asia and Eastern Europe.”
Daewon introduced Pelubi, Korea’s 12th novel drug, as an NSAID in 2007 and has been adding various indications. As a result, the product has the top prescription sales as NSAIDs, with an annual sale of 30 billion won.