SEOUL: Medicine exports by South Korean pharmaceutical firms jumped by 22 percent in 2015 from a year earlier, the biggest on-year rise in five years, data showed Wednesday. Outbound shipments of locally manufactured medicines stood at US$2.94 billion last year, up 22 percent from the previous year, according to the data by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS).
Local pharmaceutical firms produced US$16.96 billion worth of medicines in 2015, up 3.4 percent from a year earlier, they showed. Medicine exports have been on a sharp rise increasing at an annual rate of 14 percent since 2011 when it logged US$1.77 billion, the data showed.
The ministry said local pharmaceutical companies have become more competitive on the global stage on the back of robust research and development (R&D) spending and policy backup by the government. “Increase in medicine exports is the result of the government’s consistent push for medicine exports,” said Son Moon-ki, an official at the MFDS.
Japan was the top export destination, with $495.7 million in sales, trailed by Turkey with $253 million and Hungary with $173 million. Imports of medicine, meanwhile, shrank 5.1 percent on-year to $4.9 billion last year, the data showed.
