USD 50 Million Export Deal for Zydena® Signed with Russia’s Largest Pharmaceutical Company

“Into a happy drug more famous than Vodka ~” In Moscow on October 15th, Dong-A Pharmaceutical signed a USD 50 million deal with Otechestvennye JSC, Russia’s largest pharmaceutical company, to export Zydena® over a five year term. The agreement is significant in that the Russian company agreed to a rare practice of providing an upfront royalty fee based on the excellence of the new drug, displaying high expectations. This deal follows the USD 30 million export agreement with Saudi Arabia’s STP Corp signed last October. Both companies announced plans to raise Zydena® as a high quality brand and furthermore a blockbuster drug in Russia’s pharmaceutical market. To do so, both will support various promotional and marketing activities including the invitation of local Russian doctors to Korea to emphasize superior cure effects compared to existing products, and other extensive comparisons, etc. Otechestvennye JSC also noted plans to, “Invest several hundred million dollars in marketing.” The company added, “Considering Zydena® consists only of all the advantages of Viagra and Cialis, actual sales should exceed the initial USD 50 million, and even be able to exceed the USD 100 million mark.” Russia’s pharmaceutical market is a rapidly growing market based on oil money making it the largest in the Eastern Europe region. The anti-impotence drug market is estimated to be USD 50 million (based on factory price) and is growing approximately 20% each year. The Zydena® deal is based on the product’s high quality and economic competitiveness of those developed in Korea, and is meaningful in that it has set the groundwork for new drugs to advance into the global market. CEO Won-Bae Kim says, “With our pipeline of new drugs that are in development, we will set a new standard for global advancement as a pharmaceutical company with the strongest export competitiveness. We also believe discussions in progress regarding the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and the Balkan Region will be successful, and are discussing with partners in Asia, South America, and other regions. The export of Zydena® will open a new path for Korea’s export in completed products.” Dong-A Pharmaceutical, in addition to the anti-impotence effect of Zydena®, is also developing drugs for the pulmonary artery, high blood pressure, prostatism, and other diseases for which medicine is efficacious, raising hopes for global marketability. Currently, Zydena® has been patented in approximately 30 countries worldwide, completed phase II clinical trial of the FDA and will continue to phase III in the U.S. Meanwhile, Otechestvennye JSC is a group that holds three major pharmaceutical companies including Novosibchempharm, and is ranked top in manufacturing sales and export. The group was also selected as Russia’s best pharmaceutical company in 2006 by the Russian government, maintaining their position as the top in the country’s pharmaceutical industry. The company which was established as a pharmaceutical group in 1997 has approximately 150 MR and over 5,000 employees, and is in charge of 15% of Russia’s pharmaceutical exports.

The release as fetched from its publisher. donga-st.com ↗