SK Biopharm "Aiming for Annual Profit This Year... Will Prove Profitability of US Direct Sales Model"

SK Biopharm's U.S. subsidiary, SK Life Sciences, announced on the 16th that it held the '2024 National Sales Meeting' in Tampa, Florida, USA, from the 12th to the 15th (local time).

SK Biopharm President Lee Dong-hoon attended a local sales meeting held on the 14th (local time) in Tampa, Florida, where he shared the local performance and vision of Cenobamate with SK Biopharm and SK Life Science employees.
[Photo by SK Biopharm]

The National Sales Meeting is an event held by pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. to motivate their sales organizations and share future visions. SK Life Sciences has been holding this event annually since the launch of the epilepsy treatment cenobamate (U.S. brand name Xcopri) in the U.S. in 2020. The company emphasized that among Korean pharmaceutical companies that have established direct sales systems in the U.S., SK Life Sciences is the only one to hold such an event.

Marking its 5th edition this year, SK Life Sciences' National Sales Meeting gathered about 160 local executives and employees, including SK Biopharm President Lee Dong-hoon, to commend the quarterly profitability turnaround achieved through the solid sales growth of cenobamate last year and to share new goals and plans. Cenobamate experienced rapid growth last year in the U.S. market, consecutively setting record quarterly sales growth rates. Annual sales reached 270.8 billion KRW, a 60.1% increase compared to 2022. In particular, the number of new patient prescriptions (NBRx) increased rapidly, reaching approximately 26,000 prescriptions in December last year, the 44th month since launch. This is said to be 2.2 times the number of prescriptions at the 44th month of competing newly launched drugs.

At this meeting, SK Biopharm announced new incentive policies to promote motivation among local sales personnel and strategies to strengthen sales and marketing. In addition to individual incentives, the company plans to double additional incentive rewards linked to company-wide goals to provide new motivation for high performers who achieve targets early. As a detailed strategy, the company set a goal to achieve U.S. sales targets for cenobamate of 390 billion to 416 billion KRW and to increase monthly prescriptions (TRx) to over 30,000, aiming to become the number one prescribed drug within the same therapeutic area.

In his CEO presentation on the 14th, President Lee Dong-hoon said, "The solid growth of cenobamate over five years since its launch and the establishment of a direct sales system in the U.S. market were possible thanks to the efforts and dedication of all SK Biopharm and SK Life Sciences employees." He added, "Building on the quarterly profitability achieved last quarter, this year will be the 'first year to prove profitability' of the business model of directly selling new drugs in the U.S. With the acceleration of cenobamate's growth, the introduction of a second product through the local sales network will also become visible."