Mundipharma Korea closes its opioid analgesics business

25 sales and marketing employees in the specialty drug department set to take the early retirement program

Plans to contract the sales of its opioid analgesics lineup to a Korean pharmaceutical company

"Impossible to negotiate the employment terms with the company...company needs to ensure job security"

Mundipharma Korea is drastically reorganizing its opioid analgesics specialty drug business unit.

 

This is the second time the Korean branch made such large-scale reshuffles since the bankruptcy of its US headquarters, Purdue Pharma in August 2022.

 

The company is known to be searching for a domestic pharmaceutical company to take over the sales of its opioid analgesics and manage its sales with a minimum number of employees.

 

According to industry sources on the 5th, the company is conducting an Early Retirement Program (ERP).

 

This time the target is 25 sales and marketing employees in the specialty drug business unit for the opioid analgesics.

 

The ERP compensation terms are monthly base salary*(years of service*2+9) + severance pay, calculated as of 2024.

 

The retirement bonus is KRW 20 million for less than 5 years of service, KRW 30 million for less than 10 years of service, KRW 40 million for less than 15 years of service, and KRW 50 million for 15 years or more years of service.

 

If an employee with 20 years of service whose monthly salary is KRW 5 million leaves the company, he or she will receive 49 months of salary plus KRW 50 million, or KRW 295 million.

 

Mundipharma Korea is experiencing the aftermath of its U.S.-based Purdue Pharma's downsizing of its opioid analgesics division.

 

Opioid analgesics have become a social problem in the U.S., with overdose deaths and addiction leading to trillions of dollars in fines for drugmakers.

 

In 2019, Purdue Pharma agreed to pay a KRW 5 trillion settlement to 15 U.S.

 

states after admitting that it aggressively marketed its opioid analgesic OxyContin and concealed its addictive properties.

 

The company has filed for bankruptcy since then.

 

Currently, the opioid analgesics sold by Mundipharma Korea in Korea are Norspan, OxyContin, IR cordon, Targin, OxyNorm, etc.

 

The combined annual sales of these products grossed around KRW 30 in 2023.

 

However, sales of all of these products have been declining since 2019.

 

Currently, Mundipharma Korea is looking for a domestic pharmaceutical company that can handle the sales of its opioid analgesics.

 

It plans to retain 4 internal employees (two wholesale call sales personnel, one collaboration personnel, and one strategy personnel) to manage the distribution network.

 

Psychotropic drugs such as Norspan will be sold and distributed by the partner company, and the other products will be distributed by Mundipharma Korea.

 

This is why the company seeks to only retain the staff necessary for distribution and collaboration.

 

The company said, "This personnel reduction decision was made on a global level, and the local management has no authority to make decisions on the matter.” The company's labor union is also expressing dissatisfaction.

 

A union official said, "The company had carried out a personnel restructuring a year and a half ago, and we have been showing high productivity with the remaining few.

 

So we feel a greater sense of loss with this year’s reduction.

 

The negotiations regarding our job security are at a standstill.

 

We are also in the process of wage negotiations, but feel like the company is drawing a line." "Sales of major opioid analgesics are down, but I think the 25 people have done a good job of covering the work that had been done by over 100 people.

 

It is disappointing that this effort has not been recognized and that the company has shown no willingness to avoid layoffs."