The domestic biopharmaceutical market grew last year, mainly boosted by exports of biosimilar products, government data showed.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said the local biopharmaceutical market expanded to 2.6 trillion won ($2.17 billion) in 2019, up 16.6 percent from a year earlier. The market’s average annual growth was 10.2 percent in the past five years.

Genetically modified medicines, or biological medicines, recorded the fasted growth among biopharmaceutical goods.

The genetically modified drug market rapidly grew to 1.13 trillion won last year, up 47.5 percent compared to 2018.

Vaccines and cell therapeutics recorded a 7.9 percent and 26.2 percent on-year growth last year, respectively.

Shipments of Korean biopharmaceuticals showed a robust expansion.

In 2019, Korea exported $1.28 billion biopharmaceuticals, and 55.7 percent of them went to Europe.

Biopharmaceutical exports to Asia ($294.9 million) and those to Central and South America ($193.2 million) climbed 35 percent and 49.1 percent, respectively, maintaining the growth momentum since 2015.

By country, Germany was the largest importer of Korean biopharmaceutical products, purchasing $264.7 Korean drugs. Hungary came next with $233.2 million, followed by Croatia with $119.5 million, and Brazil with $148.6 million. The U.S. was the fifth largest importer, with $74.4 million.

Most of the exported biopharmaceutical drugs were biosimilar medicines, which recorded $874.5 million. The figure accounts for 68.2 percent of the total export of biopharmaceutical products.

In 2019, Korea exported five biosimilars – Celltrion’s Remsima, Truxima, Herzuma, LG Chem’s Eucept, and Chong Kun Dang’s Nesbell.

Korea’s import of biopharmaceutical drugs increased to $133.6 million in 2019, going up 10.1 percent from $121.3 million in 2018.

The U.S. was the largest exporter of biopharmaceutical drugs, selling $382.5 million medicines to Korea, followed by Switzerland with $210.5 million, and the U.K. with $145 million, Germany $140.1 million, and Denmark with $130.4 million.

By company, Celltrion recorded the largest biopharmaceutical production with 592.4 billion won, followed by GC Pharma with 578.1 billion won, LG Chem with 238 billion won, Medytox with 117.1 billion won, and SK Bioscience with 111.4 billion won.

While Celltrion’s output slid 18.4 percent on-year in 2019, others achieved double-digit growth in production. LG Chem’s output increased 13.7 percent, that of SK Plasma, 13.5 percent, Dong-A ST, 16.9 percent, and Boryung Biopharma, 20.2 percent.

By product, Celltrion produced 230.4 billion won worth Truxima (rituximab), 136.3 billion won Herzuma, and 108.7 billion won Remsima 100㎎, sweeping the top three. Remsima 100㎎ output, in particular, skyrocketed with 271.2 percent growth.

GC Pharma’s Albumin Inj. 20% followed with 86.4 billion won and IV-Globulin SN Inj. 5% with 75.9 billion won.

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