Boryung's operating profit for the first nine months of this year has already surpassed its full-year total for last year, as rising prescriptions of its hypertension drug Kanarb Family and newly consolidated global sales of the cancer drug Taxotere sustained the company's growth.
Boryung said on the 22nd that it posted cumulative revenue of 849.4 billion won ($596 million) and operating profit of 69.4 billion won ($48.7 million) on a consolidated basis for the first three quarters, up 10.0% and 5.7% respectively from a year earlier. Cumulative operating profit already exceeded last year's annual result, and the operating margin came to 8.2%.
Third-quarter results diverged, however, as costs mounted. Revenue rose 12.3% from a year earlier to 314.4 billion won, but operating profit fell 13.4% to 25.5 billion won. The company attributed the decline to amortization tied to the Taxotere acquisition, which pushed quarterly amortization up 122.0% to 12.8 billion won, and to labor costs, which rose 12.7% to 32.3 billion won. Boryung also recorded a net loss of 13.2 billion won, driven in part by foreign currency translation losses from a weaker exchange rate.
Revenue growth was led by the oncology business, the company's core segment. Taxotere generated 27.7 billion won in sales at home and abroad in the third quarter, the first quarter in which a full three months of sales were recognized since Boryung acquired the drug from Sanofi. That lifted cumulative oncology revenue to 221.4 billion won, up 24.1% from a year earlier. The cumulative gross margin for the segment improved 5.2 percentage points to 41.4% from 36.2%.
Kanarb Family also supported earnings as prescriptions continued to rise. Third-quarter prescription sales grew 7.1% from a year earlier, according to pharmaceutical market researcher UBIST, outpacing the 4.2% growth of the overall hypertension market. Kanarb Jet, launched in June, surpassed 1 billion won in monthly outpatient prescription sales within four months of its debut.
Boryung plans to step up sales and marketing in the fourth quarter to expand prescriptions of Kanarb Jet and other products. In oncology, the company aims to improve profitability by converting Alimta and Gemzar to liquid formulations and bringing production in-house. "Profitability in the oncology segment will continue to improve through a step-by-step strategy that moves from in-house production to improved formulations," a Boryung official said.