Bukwang Pharmaceutical posts record first-half sales on Union Korea Pharm acquisition boost

Bukwang Pharmaceutical has broken the 100 billion won ($67.5 million) mark in first-half cumulative sales for the first time in its history. Having completed the rehabilitation proceedings of its recently acquired Union Korea Pharm and overhauled the subsidiary's board, the company is now pushing to normalize second-half earnings and strengthen its fundamentals through three pillars: core business growth, R&D progress and acquisition synergies.

Bukwang Pharmaceutical said Wednesday it posted consolidated first-half sales of 104.8 billion won and operating profit of 2.5 billion won, disclosing the figures through an investor relations event held Tuesday. Sales jumped 15.9 percent from the same period last year, marking a record first-half performance. Operating profit, however, fell 49.9 percent year-on-year as several one-time cost pressures converged — higher raw-material costs from a weaker won, increased outsourcing fees tied to the buildout of automated production lines and upfront marketing expenses for new product launches.

The main drivers of top-line growth were rising sales at subsidiary Bukwang Medica and broad-based gains across key prescription drugs in the ethical pharmaceutical market. Out-of-hospital prescription revenue for flagship products — the diabetic neuropathy treatments Dexid (altioctic acid trometamine salt) and Thioctacid (thioctic acid) — grew 7 percent year-on-year.

Particularly strong was the central nervous system (CNS) product lineup. Out-of-hospital prescription revenue for CNS strategic products — including Latuda (lurasidone) for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Zalepdin (zaleplon) for insomnia and Orfiril (sodium valproate) for epilepsy — jumped 32 percent from the first half of last year. Bukwang plans to reinforce its two-year anniversary marketing program for Latuda while continuing to expand its prescription base, supported by domestic Phase 3 clinical trial plan approval for an additional indication of Latuda in major depressive disorder adjunctive therapy.

The drug pipeline is also advancing on multiple fronts. Bukwang's subsidiary Contera Pharma filed an investigational new drug application for a global Phase 2 trial of CP-012, a treatment for early morning akinesia in Parkinson's disease. The trial will enroll 80 adult Parkinson's patients who continue levodopa therapy but experience early morning off symptoms, and will be conducted at 25 leading medical institutions across the United States and Europe, including Poland, Italy and Spain. The company plans to obtain top-line results — the trial's primary data — by the first quarter of 2028 and complete the final clinical study report in the first half of that year. Bukwang has also introduced three new drug development platforms — Geneva, SpliceAI and LipidLink — to improve the efficiency of identifying new therapeutic targets.

Bukwang is also accelerating the strategic integration of Union Korea Pharm. At an extraordinary general meeting, Union Korea Pharm accepted the resignations of all seven incumbent directors and appointed Seong Gwang-hyeon — a former executive vice president at OCI who had led Bukwang's Union Korea Pharm acquisition task force — as inside director and chief executive. Kim Seong-su, a former partner at Samjong KPMG and currently executive vice president overseeing Bukwang's business operations, was named vice president. The board was entirely reconstituted with specialists in post-merger integration and finance.

Union Korea Pharm has filed with the court to conclude its rehabilitation proceedings and is expected to emerge as a fully normalized business following a court review this month, at which point business synergies between the two companies are expected to become more tangible. The two sides have begun a contract manufacturing organization partnership in earnest, starting with the first shipment of the gastrointestinal combination tablet Bokhaepajaimijungjeong, and plan to gradually expand the range of products manufactured in the second half.

"The one-time cost factors that arose in the first half will gradually ease from the second half onward, normalizing our earnings," a Bukwang Pharmaceutical official said. "We will continue to grow on the strength of three pillars: solid core business growth, tangible R&D progress, and successful synergies from the Union Korea Pharm acquisition."