Last year's domestic drug production exceeded 32 trillion won, the highest ever
Jun 29, 2025
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According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the size of the domestic pharmaceutical market reached 31.69 trillion won, a slight (0.7%) increase from the previous year (31.46 trillion won).
Market size is the sum of production performance and import performance minus export performance.
Drug production performance, which was 24.5662 trillion won in 2020, continues to increase to 30.6396 trillion won in 2023 and 32.8629 trillion won in 2024.
The export performance of pharmaceuticals was 12.6749 trillion won, up 28.2% from the previous year (9.8851 trillion won), and the trade balance turned into a surplus for the first time in three years as it exceeded the import performance.
The main characteristics of the domestic drug market last year are ▲the highest ever production performance of drugs and strengthened growth of raw materials drugs ▲The drug trade balance turned into a surplus in three years ▲Strong companies with more than 1 trillion won in production performance, fluctuation of No. 1 company in import performance ▲ Increase in biopharmaceutical production and export performance centered on genetically modified drugs ▲ Slight increase in market size excluding quarantine products, growth centered on industries requiring manufacturing and quality management standards (GMP), such as solid content products, and a significant increase in exports.
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In 2024, drug production stood at 1.29% of GDP and 4.80% of GDP in the entire manufacturing sector. The average annual growth rate over the past five years has been 7.5%, higher than the GDP growth rate (5.5%) over the same period.
The ratio of finished and raw material drugs production in Korea was 86.6% for finished drugs and 13.4% for raw material drugs, and in 2024, the growth of raw material drugs was remarkable, up 16.8% from the previous year (3.768 trillion won). Among the finished drugs in Korea, the ratio of production of specialty and over-the-counter drugs was 85.1% for specialty drugs and 14.9% for over-the-counter drugs, and in 2024, the growth of over-the-counter drugs was remarkable, up 9.9% from the previous year (KRW 3.8554 trillion).
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The number of companies with more than KRW 1 trillion in drug production is the same as the previous year (three), and the total production performance of the companies such as Celltrion, Hanmi Pharmaceutical, and Chong Kun Dang was KRW 5.408 trillion, up 28.2% from the previous year (3.9313 trillion won), and the ratio of the total production performance also increased to 15.3%.
Biopharmaceutical production performance in 2024 was about KRW 6.3125 trillion, up 26.4% from the previous year (4.9936 trillion won), entering the KRW 6 trillion range for the first time. This is analyzed as a result of showing even growth in all drugs such as genetically modified drugs, vaccines, toxins, and antitoxins. Biopharmaceuticals' trade balance reached a surplus of about $916.92 million, the largest trade surplus in the last five years.
Meanwhile, imports amounted to $2.299.67 billion, up 18.5% from the previous year ($1.94 billion), which was attributed to the increase in the introduction of new treatments such as vaccines against the JN.1 mutation and obesity treatments for biopharmaceuticals.
In 2024, the overall market size of non-drug products decreased slightly due to the decline in the market size of quarantine products (masks and external disinfectants) due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the market size of non-drug products excluding quarantine products increased slightly.
In 2024, non-drug imports increased 6.6% ($192.54 million) compared to the previous year ($180.62 million), while exports increased 23.6% ($820.6 million) compared to the previous year ($66.4 million).
The top five items in the production performance of non-drug products were toothpaste (405.1 billion won in production performance, 25.3% in market share), nutritional tonic agents (348.6 billion won in production performance, 21.7% in market share), menstrual products (297.8 billion won in production performance, 18.6% in market share), Band-Aid products (158.6 billion won in production performance, 9.9% in market share), and masks (83.6 billion won in production performance, 5.2% in market share). The total production performance of these top five items was 1.2937 trillion won, accounting for 80.7% of the total non-drug production performance (1.6037 trillion won).
By company, 'Dong-A Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. ranked first in production performance in 2024 following 2023, followed by 'LG Living Health Co., Ltd.', 'Yuhan Kimberly Co., Ltd.', 'Amore Pacific Co., Ltd.', and 'HATHTV Co., Ltd.', with these top five companies accounting for half (50.8%) of the total non-drug production performance.
By item, 'Baccas DiLuc' and 'Baccas F-Luc' ranked first and second in production performance in 2024, followed by 'Cas Slime' in third place, 'Yeongjin-Guron-san Original Solution' in fourth place, and 'Median-Chiseok Original Toothpaste' in fifth place.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
