Daewoong Pharm., Launched the CT Contrast Medium, ‘Neovist’

- Challenge with the high level of safety in the market of contrast medium where multinational pharmaceutical companies are leading

- A brighter outlook on trade beyond the domestic market moving into the international field, anticipated product release in the U.S. in 2013

Daewoong Pharm. Co. (CEO Jong Wook Lee) has released the CT contrast medium, ‘Neovist (iopromide)’ bringing the strategic approach up to speed in the market for contrast medium which is led by multinational pharmaceutical companies. First, the products were released in two concentrations, Neovist 370 and Neovist 300. Daewoong Pharm has plans to foster the product rapidly to reach USD approximately 250 million in sales as one of the new growth engines for the company.

Neovist is the high-purity and high-yielding CT contrast medium that was developed solely with domestic advanced technology that it has advantages over the other products for it has comparatively low impurities and therefore high safety.

It draws much attention to whether the direction of the contrast medium market would be altered or not since Daewoong Pharm. has hopped into it which has been led by the multinational pharmaceutical companies. Domestic market for contrast medium currently in size of KRW 230 billion is occupied by few numbers of products developed by the multinational pharmaceutical companies in more than 80% of the sales. In this exclusive market, the entry of Daewoong Pharm with Korea’s No 1 sales in ETC is expected to contribute to dynamic change of domestic contrast medium market. Until now, the top five pharmaceutical companies in sales have never entered the market.

The team leader, Min Yung Choi of the contrast medium dept. in Daewoong Pharm. has stated his aspirations in this project saying, “With genuine domestic self-synthesis technology and outstanding sales force of the team dedicated for it, we are aiming at the goal to achieve KRW 30 billion in sales in the next five years and based on this structure, we would become the leader of the contrast medium.”

In particular, Neovist has even brighter prospects for advancement into overseas markets including America, Europe, China, and Southeast Asia. It has already acquired all the eligibility determination in the quality evaluation from the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and European Pharmacopoeia (EP) with strict standards and has been recognized for its high quality on the world stage. The introduction of generic brands for contrast medium has been delayed in other developed countries such as the U.S. due to technical difficulties, but Daewoong Pharm. has obtained the global competitiveness in the aspects of technology and price by excellent synthesis research. The product will be released in the United States in 2013. 

Meanwhile, Daewoong Pharm. has applied for its exclusive technology on contrast medium to International Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and also has plans to expand to the field of MRI and molecular imaging beyond the field of CT by continuous research.

Contrast medium market is called the Blue Ocean with much potential expanding its size by 10% a year. Especially with the rapidly growing elderly population, the use of contrast medium is gradually changing into the direction from ‘treatment’ to ‘prevention’ so with expectations to significantly increase in demand by the increase of regular health checkups.