Companies produced KRW 66.7B finished drugs a year

raw material suppliers produced KRW 12.7 billion

Average finished drug production of pharmaceutical companies increased by 35% in 10 years

Average output of raw material drug makers doubled in 10 years...Large-scale and product restructuring progress

Companies with an annual production of finished drugs worth less than KRW 10 billion account for 51%...companies with raw materials worth less than KRW 10 billion account for 81%

The average production performance of pharmaceutical companies has been gradually increasing.

 

As the scale of the pharmaceutical industry grew, the average production value of both finished drugs and raw materials also continued to grow.

 

For both finished drugs and raw materials, the share of small companies with annual production of less than KRW 10 billion was overwhelmingly large.

 

According to the MFDS’s '2024 Food and Drug Statistical Yearbook,' 399 pharmaceutical companies produced a total of KRW 25.57 trillion worth of finished drugs in 2023.

 

On average, each pharmaceutical company produced KRW 64.1 billion’s worth of finished drugs.

 

Trends in average production value (left) and number of items (right) of finished drug companies by year (Unit: KRW million, % Source: MFDS)

The average value of finished pharmaceutical products produced by pharmaceutical companies increased by 34.5% over 10 years from KRW 49.6 billion in 2013.

 

As the pharmaceutical industry continues to grow, the average production value of pharmaceutical companies has also expanded.

 

In 2023, the number of finished drug items produced by each pharmaceutical company was 53.4.

 

This is the 8 less in nine years since 2014 when it reached 61.4.

 

The production value per finished drug item in 2023 was KRW 1.249 billion, up 4.1% year-on-year from KRW 1.249 billion in 2022.

 

The average production value of finished pharmaceutical products has increased by 60.6% over nine years, from KRW 777.93 million in 2014.

 

This means that pharmaceutical companies are restructuring their products, reducing the number of finished drug items they own, and becoming larger companies with higher production values per item.

 

However, the pharmaceutical industry as a whole was dominated by small companies.

 

Of the 403 producers of finished pharmaceutical products in 2023, 204 companies with a production value of less than KRW 10 billion accounted for 50.6%.

 

This means that more than one in two pharmaceutical companies are SMEs with annual production of less than KRW 10 billion.

 

There were 126 manufacturers with less than KRW 1 billion in finished drug production.

 

This means that one out of every three manufacturers is a small business with less than KRW 1 billion in annual production.

 

The number of companies producing less than KRW 1 billion in finished pharmaceuticals has tripled in 10 years, from just 45 in 2013.

 

In 2023, 73 companies produced more than KRW 100 billion in finished pharmaceutical products, an increase of 8 companies from the previous year.

 

Compared to 38 companies in 2013, the number of companies with a production value of KRW 100 billion or more increased by 92.1%.

 

The number of companies producing more than KRW 500 billion in finished pharmaceuticals has tripled in 10 years, from 4 in 2013 to 12 in 2023.

 

Raw material drug companies are also scaling up their businesses, but the share of small companies is still large.

 

In 2023, 296 raw material drug makers produced a total of KRW 3.768 trillion.

 

Each raw material drug company produced an average of KRW 12.7 billion.

 

The average production value of raw material drug companies has more than doubled in 10 years from KRW 5.9 billion in 2013.

 

Trend of average production amount (left) and number of items (right) of raw material drug companies by year (Unit: KRW million, % Source: MFDS)

The average number of items produced by raw material drug companies decreased by 6 over 10 years, from 27.1 items in 2013 to 21.1 items in 2023.

 

Similar to finished pharmaceuticals, raw material drug manufacturers are also analyzed to improve their quality by reducing the number of products they handle while increasing the average production scale.

 

In 2023, 239 of the 296 producers of raw material pharmaceuticals made under KRW 10 billion, accounting for 80.7%.

 

The number of companies producing less than KRW 1 billion was 137, or 46.4%.

 

Almost half of the companies produced less than KRW 1 billion in annual output.

 

The number of companies producing less than KRW 1 billion in raw materials decreased by 106 over the 10 years from 243 in 2013.

 

The number of companies producing more than KRW 100 billion in raw materials more than doubled in 10 years, from just three in 2013 to seven in 2023.