Ursa’s Advance into East Asia, Stepping Stone to Becoming Global Brand

Daewoong Pharmaceutical held a symposium on Ursa in Vietnam. 

Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co. (Representative Director: Lee Jong-wook) held a symposium in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam on July 14th to launch Ursa, South Korea’s representative drug for the improvement of liver function (Vietnamese product name: Daewoong Ursa S, ingredient: UDCA). About 270 experts participated in the symposium.

This launch is the first-ever entry of Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s representative OTC drug brand into an overseas market. The pharmaceutical firm official says that this will only be the first step to entering the Asian market. Other than Ursa, Daewoong Pharmaceutical plans to develop CoQ10 (anti-oxidant medicine), Easyef (wound healing medicine) and Luphere (anti-cancer medicine) into global brands based on exports to East Asian countries.  

Presentations made at the launching symposium, which was held at the New World Hotel in Ho Chi Minh, included “Being Healthy from Traditional Medical Perspectives and Efficacy of a Bear’s Gall Bladder” (by a Vietnamese pathology professor of the Traditional Medical University), “Roles of UDCA in the Treatment and Prevention of Hepatic Diseases” (by a Vietnamese hepatic specialist at Ho Chi Minh Medical College) and “Superiority of Daewoong Ursa S” (Director of Daewoong Pharmaceutical).     

At the symposium, Chung Jong-guen, the head of the OTC Marketing Division of Daewoong Pharmaceutical, said, “We will develop Ursa into a renowned liver treatment brand through public marketing and evidence-based marketing strategies. We will hold academic seminars and conduct marketing activities targeting doctors, pharmacists and consumers such as a liver function improvement campaign and public advertising.” He added, “We will develop Ursa and CoQ10 into global brands, starting from Vietnam and this will serve as our stepping stone to dominating the East Asian market and then to joining in the worlds top 50 pharmaceutical firms.”

To this end, the pharmaceutical firm will open the Ursa homepage in Vietnam early August and will provide a wide range of information on UDCA and Ursa products to familiarize the Vietnamese public with the Ursa brand. To promote Daewoong brands, the Ursa homepage will be linked to Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s homepage (www.daewoong.com). Also, via the Ursa homepage, it will establish an online purchasing system, which will be the second electronic transaction attempt for drugs in Vietnam. 

Other than these efforts, Daewoong Pharmaceutical is running an advertising campaign promoting the efficacy of a bear’s gall bladder, technical prowess of Daewoo Pharmaceutical and the importance of liver recovery, with a famous Vietnamese singer, actor and emcee as the ad model.
Meanwhile, Daewoong Pharmaceutical is stepping up its foray into East Asia by establishing branches in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Thailand and Philippines, etc. Currently, in Vietnam, where its branch office was established in 2004, Daewoong Pharmaceutical is selling Albis Tab (anti-ulcer medicine), Ursa (medicine for improvement of liver functions) and Luphere (anti-cancer medicine) and it is preparing to release Easyef, a novel bioengineered drug developed by Daewoong Pharmaceutical for the first time in Korea.