Hanmi Pharmaceutical said it has held the top spot in South Korea’s outpatient prescription sales for seven straight years, driven by drugs developed with its own technology. The company said more than 90% of its revenue comes from in-house products, and it is accelerating efforts to find new global growth engines through research and development.
Industry officials said Hanmi’s R&D spending as a share of revenue rose from 13.4% in 2022 to 15.2% as of the third quarter of last year.
Analysts said the company’s steady double-digit R&D investment underpins its growth strategy. Hanmi has set a 2030 target of 1.9 trillion won in domestic sales and 1 trillion won overseas, for total revenue of 2.9 trillion won.
The company expects its obesity drug program to align with industry trends and help expand its global business.
Hanmi recently signed an exclusive distribution deal with Mexican drugmaker Sanfer covering its GLP-1 obesity drug candidate efpeglenatide and its diabetes combination products sold under the Daparon family name (Daparon tablets and Daparon Duo extended-release tablets). A regulatory filing said the supply contract for the Daparon products totals about 65.8 billion won and runs through Jan. 26, 2036.
Efpeglenatide, a key in-house candidate, is slated for launch in the second half of this year and is under review for approval by South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. If approved, it would become the first domestically developed GLP-1 obesity treatment. Kwon Hae Soon, an analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities, said the obesity treatment market is expected to expand in earnest around the time of efpeglenatide’s launch, adding that a locally made product could win meaningful share given price competitiveness and supply stability.
A Hanmi official said the launch price has not been set, but the company expects to secure price competitiveness because it will produce efpeglenatide at its Pyeongtaek bioplant. The official said direct control over production and supply could be a differentiator in a market where existing products rely on imports.
Hanmi is also moving ahead with clinical development of next-generation obesity candidates, including HM15275, a triple-acting drug aimed at obesity and muscle loss, and HM17321, designed to increase muscle. For HM15275, the company said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its Phase 2 investigational new drug application in September, and the first patient was dosed about three months later. The Phase 2 study will evaluate weight-loss effects and improvements in lean body mass in obese and severely obese patients after 36 weeks of long-term dosing. The company expects Phase 2 to end in the first half of 2027.
Hanmi said oncology remains central to its new-drug pipeline. BH3120, a bispecific antibody immuno-oncology drug being co-developed with Beijing Hanmi Pharmaceutical, recently presented Phase 1 progress at the ESMO Immuno-Oncology Congress 2025. The company said BH3120 uses its Pentambody bispecific antibody platform, which allows a single antibody to bind two different targets at the same time.
A Hanmi official said the company is building capabilities across multiple modalities, including targeted protein degradation, messenger RNA, cell and gene therapies, antibody-drug conjugates and single-domain antibodies, and will continue to pursue development and commercialization of innovative medicines.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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