Top 10 pharmaceutical stories in 2017 ⑧

The Korean pharmaceutical industry continued to grow this year, with the market size exceeding a historical 20 trillion won ($18.5 billion) landmark. Global success stories of Celltrion and Samsung Bioepis are ongoing news, and more Korean pharmaceuticals are entering the U.S. market. Kolon Life Science released the new, domestically-developed drug Invossa and other Korean pharmaceutical firms followed suit. Illegal rebates remained a current problem while patients expressed outrage against high drug prices. The government unveiled policies that slashed drug costs to regulate prices, keeping pharmaceuticals on their feet. The following are the 10 biggest pharmaceutical stories in 2017 – Ed.

Daewoong Pharmaceuticals continued to stand the center of multiple lawsuits in 2017, too.

Daewoong and Medytox are squabbling over the origin of their BTX strain with lawsuits both in Korea and the United States. Medytox, which suspected that Daewoong stole its strain, broadcast a TV advertisement in July demanding Daewoong to reveal the origin of its BTX strain. However, the broadcast received administrative measures for violating advertising laws regarding prescription medicines. Because of the TV ad, the authorities banned Medytox from marketing or advertising six of its products, including Meditoxin Injection, for a month. During that time, Daewoong demanded that Medytox stop slandering the company.

Since then, however, Medytox has filed a civil lawsuit against Daewoong and its U.S. partners Alphaeon and Evolus, as well as Daewoong employees and a former Medytox employee in the U.S.

After the U.S. court ordered the companies first to settle the dispute in Korea, Medytox filed several complaints, including the prohibition of trade secret infringement, with the Seoul District Court on Oct. 30. Currently, both companies are confident that they can prove their claims through the lawsuit.

Daewoong is also in a legal battle with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and Chong Kun Dang pharmaceutical to maintain reference-listed drug status for Gliatilin, a cognition-enhancing therapy developed by Italfarmaco. Although both the ministry and Chong Kun Dang agreed that it is not worth squabbling over, Daewoong raised controversy after filing for an administrative trial to reselect Gliatamin as the reference drug status, while removing Chong Kun Dang’s product from the list.

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