Medytox posted a significant year-over-year drop in profits last year. The company attributed it to ongoing litigation and other reasons while predicting its performance will improve this year.

On Thursday, Medytox released its preliminary consolidated operating results for 2023 through a public disclosure of changes in sales or profit and loss structure of more than 30 percent.

According to the disclosure, Medytox's sales amounted to 221.1 billion won ($167.3 million) last year, an increase of 13.3 percent from 2022. Operating income and net income were 17.3 billion won, and 9.6 billion won, falling 62.9 percent and 73.7 percent, year-on-year, respectively. 

Medytox ascribed its performance to increased sales costs due to the shutdown loss in the fourth quarter to prepare for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and lower profits due to ongoing litigation costs at home and abroad.

Nevertheless, the company experienced robust sales growth last year due to the increasing demand for its major products, including botulinum toxin and fillers, as well as the strong performance of its cosmetics brand Neuraderm. According to the company, botulinum toxin sales grew 16 percent overseas and 26 percent at home compared to the previous year, while filler sales grew 4 percent and 11 percent in foreign and domestic markets, respectively.

Medytox expects to break the 2023 sales record this year if the botulinum toxin product Newlux, which received a domestic marketing license last year, and Coretox, which has become the company's flagship product, continue to grow. There are tangible results in new business areas, such as lipolysis injectable NewV, targeted for launch this year.

Besides, Medytox expects part of its ongoing lawsuits to end this year, reducing its expenses. The return of its sales costs to their original level with the normalization of its second factory will also positively affect its profit.

"We have high expectations for sales growth and profit improvement this year as many of our newly launched products are receiving good market responses," a Medytox official said. We will do our best to ensure that our targeted results are realized as the various projects we have been working on for the past few years are coming to fruition one by one."

The official went on to say, “We will focus on expediting the overseas approval of our next-generation botulinum toxin product, including Newlux, which has been launched in Korea, and on winning the U.S. FDA approval process for MT10109L, a non-animal liquid botulinum toxin product being developed for advanced markets, likes the U.S. and Japan, back on track."