USD 50 Million Contract Signed to Export Zydena® to Russia

Dong-A Pharmaceutical (President Won-Bae Kim) announced on signing an export contract for Zydena® (erectile dysfunction treatment), newly developed from its own expertise, to Russia, the biggest Eastern European market. Dong-A Pharmaceutical announced that it agreed with Otechestvennye JSC, Russia’s biggest pharmaceutical company, to export Zydena® worth USD 50 million for five years after a contract signing ceremony in Moscow at 5:00 pm (Korean local time) on October 15. In particular, as the Russian counterpart agreed to pay the down-payment for the royalties, a rarity in export contracts, recognizing the excellence of the new drug, high expectations over the contract are palpable. This export contract is mega-scale, following the one worth USD 30 million signed with STP of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East in last October. The two companies announced their ambitious plan to grow Zydena® as a premium brand name drug in the Russian pharmaceutical market as a blockbuster. To that end, they decided to unfold aggressive marketing and promotion activities by inviting to Korea local doctors of Russia, emphasizing its strong efficacy vis-à-vis the existing ones and promotion based on a wide spectrum of product comparison. Moreover, Otechestvennye JSC is planning to pour in millions of dollars every year for marketing. Considering the excellence of Zydena® touting only the strengths of Viagra and Cialis, “Its actual sales volume would even possibly surpass USD 100 million beyond the minimum contract value of USD 50 million,” the company said with confidence. The Russian pharmaceutical market is the biggest kind in Eastern Europe rapidly growing with the oil money. The erectile dysfunction treatment market is worth USD 50 million (based on the producer sale price), and is growing over 20% per annum. The export contract to Russia is significant in that Zydena® has been recognized as a competitive drug with the top-notch product quality and efficacy as a new drug among its domestic counterparts, setting a cornerstone as a domestically produced new drug to attract the global audience. Dong-A Pharmaceutical’s President Kim, Won-Bae said, “We will position ourselves as a new standard for pharmaceutical companies to make inroads abroad as the most competitive exporter of pharmaceutical goods, also driven by the new pipelines currently being researched. The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Balkans are also possible export targets where the contract is very likely to be settled. Not only that, contract negotiations are underway with partners in Asia and Latin America, opening a new chapter in exporting Korea’s finished pharmaceutical goods driven by the export of Zydena®.” Dong-A Pharmtech President Park, Dong-Hyun said, “We have made a step closer to the overseas markets of Europe and the U.S. by advancing into Russia, one of the major markets for erectile dysfunction treatments. Based on our success in Russia, we will push ourselves hard to advance into the biggest market of the U.S., Europe and Japan by 2009 when the US FDA’s phase II clinical trial ends.” Dong-A Pharmaceutical is conducting development of new treatments for pulmonary hypertension and prostatic hyperplasia let alone enjoying the efficacy of Zydena®, so the overseas market presence of Zydena® would further intensify. Currently, Zydena® has been patented in 30 countries, and earlier this year, it underwent the US FDA’s phase II clinical trial with success, ready for the last trial stage of phase III in the U.S. # # # About Dong-A Pharmaceutical Dong-A is Korea’s leading pharmaceutical company. Based on its corporate philosophy that the greate

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