Korea Biomedical Review is publishing a series of articles to analyze the top 10 Korean pharmaceutical and biopharma companies with the largest market capitalizations listed on the main bourse, Kospi, and the tech-heavy Kosdaq. The series aims to reflect key industrial issues and the flow of the capital market in the Korean pharmaceutical and biopharma industry. This is the sixth installment. -- Ed.

Hanmi Pharmaceutical recorded the highest earnings in 2022 since its foundation based on self-developed products through continuous R&D.

This year, it said it would maintain its investment stance for R&D as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Hanmi had invested more than 1.75 trillion won ($1.3 billion) in R&D for the past decade from 2013, which accounts for 17 percent of the company's total sales of 10.34 trillion won during the same period.

Hanmi's strong product competitiveness boosted by robust R&D investment has strengthened its performance, observers said.

Hanmi broke the record for the highest sales in seven years in 2022, proving the high efficacy of its R&D investment.

Provisional sales and operating profit on a consolidated basis were about 1.33 trillion and 157 billion won last year, up 10.7 percent and 25.2 percent from 2021.

The company's net profit in 2022 also increased by 17.4 percent compared to 2021 to 95.7 billion won.

Notably, Hanmi achieved 789.1 billion won in outpatient prescription sales last year, and successfully solidified its position as Korea's top outpatient prescription sales company for five consecutive years.

Last year, the company had 18 blockbuster products with sales of over 10 billion won, including Rosuzet, a combination drug for dyslipidemia which recorded 140.3 billion won in sales.

Hanmi Pharm's R&D prowess is also being proven in the U.S. with Rolvedon.

Rolvedon is Hanmi's first new biologic drug that is used to treat or prevent severe neutropenia in cancer patients who have undergone chemotherapy.

The drug is the first product to receive marketing approval by applying Hanmi's proprietary platform technology, "LAPSCOVERY," which boosts a bio-medicine's efficacy.

Hanmi had previously licensed out the treatment to Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, its U.S. partner, in 2012, and Spectrum received approval in September of last year.

Notably, there is additional hype surrounding the success of Rolvedon as it recently got listed on the U.S. public insurance reimbursement drug list.

Industry watchers expect that the listing will have a positive impact on expanding prescriptions and establishing brand awareness as the cost burden of patients is lowered.

Local analysts also expect good performance from Rolvedon this year.

"Spectrum estimation Rolvedon's sales in the fourth quarter of last year was $10 million," said Ha Hyeon-soo, an analyst at Yuanta Securities. "The drug's sales target this year is $100 million as the top three community oncology networks in the U.S. started using Rolvedon, and the three communities account for about 22 percent of the total clinic market."

Beijing Hanmi Pharmaceutical, a Chinese subsidiary of Hanmi, is also expected to continue sales growth this year, which will have an impact on earnings.

Beijing Hanmi had previously surpassed 300 billion won in annual sales last year for the first time since its establishment in 1996.

The company recorded sales of 350.6 billion won, up 21.4 percent from last year, achieving the highest performance since its launch, and operating profit and net profit also increased by 16.6 and 18.8 percent.

According to the Beijing Daily, a Chinese state-run media outlet, Beijing Hanmi's monthly sales in January this year were 350 million yuan (about 66 billion won), a 22 percent increase from last year and the highest monthly sales ever.

Considering that sales in the first quarter of last year, which was when Beijing Hanmi recorded the highest sales ever, was 94.8 billion won, the industry predicts that Beijing Hanmi will be able to achieve annual sales of 400 billion won this year.