Samil Pharmaceutical Secures Rights to 'Amelibu'... Boosts Specialized Strategy for Eye Drops

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon] Sam-il Pharmaceutical has gained momentum in its growth strategy specializing in eye drop products by signing a licensing agreement for the ophthalmic disease treatment drug 'Amelibu' with Samsung Bioepis.

According to the financial investment industry on the 22nd, Sam-il Pharmaceutical has secured its first lineup of ophthalmic disease biopharmaceuticals through this licensing agreement.

Sam-il Pharmaceutical currently holds a lineup of 39 ophthalmic drug products including glaucoma treatments, dry eye treatments, and allergy treatments, and with this contract, it has additionally secured a lineup of treatments for macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema.

As of 2019, the global ophthalmic drug market size reached approximately 42 trillion KRW. Among these, the largest market segment is retinal disease treatment products such as those for macular degeneration, accounting for a 14 trillion KRW market, followed by glaucoma treatments in second place, and dry eye treatments in third.

With this agreement, Sam-il Pharmaceutical has effectively secured the product lineups with the largest market sizes among ophthalmic disease treatments.

Sam-il Pharmaceutical has been pursuing the acquisition of various ophthalmic product lineups and a global eye drop CMO (Contract Manufacturing Organization) business for several years to grow into a global specialized pharmaceutical company with strengths in the ophthalmic field.

In addition to its self-developed products, it has strengthened its ophthalmic product portfolio by consecutively partnering with ophthalmic specialized companies such as Allergan in the United States, THEA in France, and NICOX S.A.

As a result, sales of ophthalmic eye drops, which were only 19 billion KRW in 2018, grew to 40 billion KRW by 2021, accounting for about 30% of total sales.

This year, sales are expected to reach the 50 billion KRW range, and with the growth of existing product sales along with the Amelibu licensing agreement, the sales scale is expected to expand further in the future.

In the second half of this year, an eye drop production plant in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is scheduled to be completed. The Vietnam CMO plant is a state-of-the-art automated production facility with a site area of 25,008.5㎡ and a total floor area of 21,314㎡, which is three times the size of a soccer field.

Sam-il Pharmaceutical plans to actively enter the global CMO business through the Vietnam plant.

The greatest competitive advantage of Sam-il Pharmaceutical’s Vietnam eye drop CMO plant is cost competitiveness. Labor costs in Vietnam, which has abundant labor, are about 20-25% of those in Korea, enabling excellent contract manufacturing price competitiveness through cost reduction based on labor costs.

Currently, the global pharmaceutical industry is facing intense price competition due to generic drug entries after patent expirations, and various efforts are being made to minimize profitability declines caused by drug price reductions.

Therefore, multinational pharmaceutical companies are highly interested in global CMO companies that can supply products at lower production costs. In fact, Sam-il Pharmaceutical stated that it is continuing discussions related to eye drop contract manufacturing with various global ophthalmic specialized companies.

A Sam-il Pharmaceutical official said, "Sam-il Pharmaceutical achieved 42.3% sales growth in the first quarter, reaching 45.9 billion KRW, driven by the rapid growth of the ophthalmic business division and the neuropsychiatry business division, and also recorded an operating profit of 2.3 billion KRW. We expect this growth trend and strong performance to continue throughout the year."