- Technical transfer and overseas co-promotion of growth hormone product

- Synergy of Daewoong and Bi-nex


Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (President Lee Jong Wook) andBi-nex (President Jeong Myeong Ho), a biomedicine company, have jointly developed a rheumatoid arthritis remedy and are going to pursue the overseas co-promotion of a growth hormone product.

The two companies set up an agreement for joint development and co-promotion of Enbrel bio-similar, a rheumatoid arthritis remedy, and for technical transfer and overseas co-promotion of Caretropine, a growth hormone product. While Bio-nex, which is equipped with cGMP, will play a platform role in developing biomedicine with this agreement, Daewoong shall concentrate on developing global biomedicine R&D. 

In the co-developing projectof Enbrel bio-similar, Daewoong is pursuing pre-clinical and clinical research, and Bio-nex shall take the responsibility for developing process manufacturing. Domestic and overseas marketing shall be pursued together. Both shall accelerate the development of biomedicine through close cooperation in areas from development to sales. As of 2010, the market size for rheumatoid arthritis remedies is more than 7 trillion won, and has been steadily increasing by about 13% annually. Enbrel bio-similar is pursuing preclinical research, and is aiming for commercialization in 2015.  

Caretropin is for infant and adult patients that lack growth hormones, and is sold with a pen injector, which is also developed by Daewoong. Plans are to pursue overseas sales through three overseas branches, including Vietnam, and to make exports to major Middle Eastern countries, including Iran and Egypt, from the first half of 2012. Thanks to this technical transfer and overseas co-promotion, Caretropine will be able to advance to overseas markets that require cGMP level production facilities, and also will be able to expand its market scope based on the overseas network of both companies.

Lee Jong Wook, president of Daewoong Pharmaceutical said "this joint project agreement goes beyond a simple alliance to maximize mutual capacity from R&D to overseas marketing." Jeong Myeong Ho, president of Bi-nex said "we expect the globalization and expansion of sales thanks to the synergy between our process development and production capacity and Daewoong’s excellent products and R&D capacity."

In particular, this agreement is noteworthy in that it suggests a new business model. A spokesperson for Daewoong commented, "So far, the level is only to introduce technology or joint research, but it is very rare for two companies to make a co-project from R&D through production to overseas sales. This may be a new business model to advance into overseas markets." While license-out is typicallyadopted for overseas export, the Caretropine co-promotion agreement is being made with technical transfer, which is a unique point of this agreement.