Sales Growth Rate at 13.1%
Operating Profit Margin at 14.3%
Last year, South Korean bio-healthcare companies recorded double-digit growth in both exports and domestic sales.
According to the "Bio-Healthcare Company Trend Survey" released by the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization on April 28, the sales of domestic bio-healthcare companies grew by 13.1% last year. During the same period, the operating profit margin increased by approximately 1.3 percentage points, from 13% to 14.3%.
In terms of sales, domestic sales expanded by 11.4%, while exports grew by 16.8%. This is attributed to increased sales of biosimilars and contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) services by large pharmaceutical companies. Last year, Samsung Biologics recorded sales of 4.5473 trillion won, marking about 23% growth, while Celltrion, which merged with Celltrion Healthcare, achieved sales of 3.5573 trillion won and a growth rate of 63.4%.
The Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization's survey targeted 91 listed companies included in the bio-healthcare sector of the Korea Exchange (KRX) industry index. The analysis was conducted by segment (pharmaceuticals, medical devices) and company size (large, mid-sized, small), based on last year's business reports, and comprehensively examined workforce, R&D expenditure, sales, and financial status.
Last year, R&D investment increased by 5.4% compared to the previous year. In the pharmaceutical sector, despite decreases in investment by mid-sized (0.9%) and small companies (3.8%), an 11.2% increase by large companies led to an overall 2.8% rise in pharmaceutical R&D investment. The medical device sector showed a strong upward trend with an overall increase of 22.9%.
The workforce reached 49,388, up approximately 3.9% (1,838 people) from the previous year. Among them, R&D personnel totaled 7,706, an increase of about 2.6% year-on-year. R&D personnel accounted for roughly 15.6% of the total workforce. The equity ratio, an indicator of financial stability, decreased by about 1.2 percentage points compared to the previous year, but both pharmaceutical (74.1%) and medical device (81.7%) companies maintained stable financial structures.
Focusing on the fourth quarter, the growth trend was even steeper. In the fourth quarter of last year, the sales growth rate of listed bio-healthcare companies reached 18.2%, an increase of about 15.9 percentage points compared to 2.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization evaluated, "The increase in sales by large pharmaceutical companies (55.3%) and the continued sales growth of small companies (pharmaceuticals 29.1%, medical devices 28.3%) had a significant impact."
In terms of profitability (operating margin) for the fourth quarter, the figure increased by about 1 percentage point from 13.2% in the same period last year to 14.2%. This was due to the high profitability (30.9%) recorded by large pharmaceutical companies, even though profitability declined for mid-sized and small companies, including operating losses among small medical device firms.
Kim Eunhee, Head of the Industrial Statistics Team at the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization, stated, "Listed bio-healthcare companies have shown overall sales expansion and continued high equity ratios in 2024, indicating sound financial health. However, small pharmaceutical companies are still operating at a loss, so ongoing efforts to improve profitability are necessary." She added, "This year, we plan to monitor quarterly how U.S. tariffs will affect our exports of pharmaceuticals and medical devices."
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