Nabota, Daewoong Pharma's botulinum toxin product. [Daewoong Pharma]
Nabota, Daewoong Pharma's botulinum toxin product. [Daewoong Pharma]

Daewoong Pharma posted record quarterly sales and operating profit in the second quarter, driven by surging global exports of its botulinum toxin product Nabota.

The pharmaceutical company disclosed Wednesday that its preliminary standalone second-quarter earnings included sales of 400.2 billion won ($273 million), operating profit of 77.1 billion won and net profit of 69.4 billion won.

Compared with the same period a year earlier, sales rose 10.0 percent while operating profit and net profit climbed 23.4 percent and 41.9 percent, respectively. The operating profit margin came in at 19.3 percent, up 2.1 percentage points from 17.2 percent a year ago, reflecting the company's strengthening profitability.

On a consolidated basis, second-quarter sales grew 10.6 percent on-year to 448.5 billion won, while operating profit rose 17.7 percent to 68.1 billion won.

The standout driver of the strong results was Nabota, the company's high-margin botulinum toxin product. Global export sales of Nabota surged 54.2 percent on-year to 94.1 billion won in the second quarter, buoyed by solid local demand and shipping volumes.

Including domestic sales, total Nabota revenue for the quarter reached 103.4 billion won. The gains reflect a stronger foothold in North America through US partner Evolus and growing synergies from filler product launches in European markets including the United Kingdom and Germany. Daewoong Pharma plans to complete current Good Manufacturing Practice certification for Nabota's new factory by year-end to significantly expand commercial production capacity for global markets.

Fexuclue, the company's P-CAB new drug for gastroesophageal reflux disease, saw prescription sales ease slightly in the second quarter due to a temporary inventory drawdown. The company expects medium- to long-term growth to continue as indications expand and sales normalize in the second half.

The digital healthcare business posted sales of 15.7 billion won, up 27 percent on-year, cementing its role as a new growth engine. The global expansion of the company's proprietary botulinum toxin product has made Daewoong a leading example of a domestic pharmaceutical company pushing past traditional profitability limits by raising the share of high-margin export revenue.


silverpaper@heraldcorp.com