Dong-a ST headquarters. [Provided by Dong-a ST]
Dong-a ST headquarters. [Provided by Dong-a ST]

Dong-a ST achieved its highest-ever quarterly sales, driven by expanded prescriptions for key ethical pharmaceutical products and strong overseas business performance, while returning to net profit.

Dong-a ST disclosed Monday that its second-quarter sales on a separate financial statement basis rose 17.2 percent year-on-year to 207.8 billion won ($142 million), a record for any single quarter. Operating profit surged 170.4 percent over the same period to 10.9 billion won, while net profit for the period came in at 8 billion won, swinging from a loss a year earlier.

The strong results reflected balanced growth across all business segments, including ethical pharmaceuticals, overseas operations and digital healthcare. Despite higher sales of in-licensed products, which carry greater cost burdens, the company kept its cost-of-sales ratio near year-ago levels through an improved product mix and production efficiencies, enabling a sharp rise in operating profit.

The ethical pharmaceuticals segment posted 148.6 billion won, up 15.2 percent year-on-year, as core products gained traction and in-licensed product sales expanded. The company expects further top-line growth in the second half, with the planned launch of the epilepsy drug Xcopri.

The overseas business segment reached 46.9 billion won, up 20.9 percent year-on-year, on the back of higher exports of canned Bacchus energy drinks and darbepoetin alfa, an anemia treatment. The digital healthcare segment surged 208 percent year-on-year to 3.2 billion won, driven by growth in HiCardi, a real-time electrocardiogram remote monitoring platform. The company plans to launch a new product, HiCardi M350, in the second half to sustain the segment's momentum.

Key pipeline candidates are also delivering visible results in global clinical trials. Dong-a ST has invested more than 10 percent of annual sales in research and development each year, a commitment that had weighed on profitability, but the company said it now appears to be entering a virtuous cycle in which clinical progress translates into improved earnings and corporate value.

DA-1241, a treatment for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis and type 2 diabetes being developed through US affiliate Metavía, has completed a global Phase 2a trial. The obesity drug DA-1726 is in Part 3 of a global Phase 1 trial to assess safety and tolerability at higher doses. Tau aggregation inhibitor DA-7503 and immuno-oncology drug DA-4505 are both in domestic Phase 1 trials.

Dong-a ST and its subsidiary Aptys also presented 10 preclinical research findings on next-generation anticancer pipeline candidates — including a PARP7 inhibitor and a bispecific antibody-drug conjugate — at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting. The company also disclosed preclinical results for brain disease treatments at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference, continuing to expand its global research and development network.

"We achieved record quarterly sales through balanced growth across all business segments," a company official said. "We will continue to strengthen our business competitiveness and research and development capabilities as we advance toward becoming a global healthcare company."


silverpaper@heraldcorp.com