Dongwha Pharmaceutical announced on the 18th that it will acquire the Asia-Pacific regional distribution rights for nine areas of four best-selling over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, including 'Hwaituben' and 'Albochil', previously held by Celltrion.
The acquisition targets are four products: the comprehensive cold medicine Hwuituben, the nasal decongestant 'Hwuituben Nasal Spray', the stomatitis treatment Albochil, and the vitamin D and calcium supplement 'Calcium Chew'. The target regions include nine Asia-Pacific areas such as South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia. However, among these, Calcium Chew is only sold in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the other three products are not yet marketed outside of South Korea. Even after Dongwha Pharmaceutical acquires the distribution rights, domestic sales of these products will continue to be handled by Shinshin Pharmaceutical until 2025, according to the domestic supply contract for Hwuituben and Albochil signed in 2022 between Shinshin Pharmaceutical and Celltrion Pharmaceutical.
Since the beginning of this year, Celltrion has been actively planning to sell its Asia-Pacific 'primary care' business rights, which it acquired from Takeda in 2020. Earlier this month, it sold the overseas distribution rights of prescription drugs (ETC), excluding diabetes treatments 'Nesina' and 'Actos' and hypertension treatment 'Idalbi', to CBC Group, a global healthcare-focused private equity fund.
With this acquisition, Dongwha Pharmaceutical plans to enter the pill-type cold medicine market through Hwuituben and the stomatitis treatment market through Albochil, in addition to its liquid-type comprehensive cold medicine 'Pancol'. The company also expects overall OTC sales growth through this acquisition.
A Dongwha Pharmaceutical official said, "As a leading company in the domestic OTC market, we expect this acquisition to create significant synergy in diversifying our product portfolio and increasing domestic and international sales," adding, "Along with Dongwha Pharmaceutical’s business diversification strategy, we will do our best to secure growth drivers for our existing OTC business."
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