Pamicell Accelerates Growth in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Business... Benefits from COVID-19 and Gene Therapy Market Expansion

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] Pharmicell recently announced on the 31st that its sales of active pharmaceutical ingredients have surged due to the increased demand for COVID-19 diagnostic kits and the growth of the nucleic acid therapeutics market using RNA.

A company official explained, "From the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, we anticipated a global pandemic and secured raw materials in advance," adding, "Because we adjusted our production schedule, we have been able to supply smoothly even with sudden shipment requests exceeding expectations."

Pharmicell is particularly experiencing a rapid increase in orders for nucleosides, which are the main raw materials used in virus diagnostic kits, infectious disease diagnostic reagents, and new gene therapy drugs. As of March, it has already achieved about 80% of last year's sales of 7.1 billion KRW. This year, sales from nucleosides alone are expected to exceed 10 billion KRW. Pharmicell's nucleoside business, which started in 1999, possesses world-class quality, technology, and production facilities for mass production. It has been recognized for quality by global companies with whom it has maintained transactions for the past 20 years.

Pharmicell counts global pharmaceutical distributors such as Thermo Fisher Scientific in the United States and Merck in Europe as its major clients. Even if direct supply contracts are not made with Pharmicell, most domestic and international pharmaceutical companies and research institutes purchase raw materials from them. It is estimated that the majority of companies worldwide use Pharmicell's nucleosides.

Thermo Fisher and Merck process Pharmicell's nucleosides into phosphoramidites and supply them to large global pharmaceutical companies such as Qiagen and Roche. These large pharmaceutical companies then process and utilize them for gene therapies and diagnostic kits.