| Samyang Corporation Successfully Exports Nicostop |
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Date : 2005-08-23 |
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Samyang Corporation Successfully Exports Nicostop, a Nicotine Patch Designed to Help Smokers Quit
- Expecting at least US$10 million in royalties over the next 10 years
The death of Juil Lee, a comedian who passed away early last year due to lung cancer, gave momentum to the non-smoking movement and created what became the ¡°Lee Juil syndrome¡±. Amid the fever to quit smoking that has continued into this year, a nicotine patch (or simply ¡°the patch¡±) designed to aid smokers in their efforts to quit - the first of its kind in Korea - is being launched in the global market. Samyang Corporation (Vice Chairman Yoon Kim) recently concluded a technology transfer contract with Lavipharm, a company headquartered in Greece, to manufacture and sell Nicostop in the global market, with the exception of Korea.
Lavipharm, after learning how to manufacture Nicostop from Samyang Corporation, will build a manufacturing facility identical to that of the Samyang pharmaceutical plant in Daejeon. Lavipharm will use the plant as a base for entering the European market first, and then to gradually expand sales to other regions.
Lavipharm will submit to Samyang a technology licensing fee and a certain percentage of revenues collected through royalties as payment for the export of commercialization technology.
The royalties alone are expected to exceed US$10 million over the next 10 years once introduced to the European market. Currently, the overall nicotine replacement market in Europe amounts to about US$400 million, with nicotine patch sales accounting for about US$150 million.
Samyang Corporation succeeded in developing a patch designed to aid people quit smoking with its own technology, the first of its kind in Korea, and is engaged in large-scale production. Nicostop is currently supplied to the Korean market through a strategic alliance with Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co., and it is one of Samyang¡¯s most profitable products with a 70% market share in Korea and about 10 billion won per annum in sales.
The nicotine patch provides a transdermal supply of nicotine to smokers wishing to quit smoking cigarettes. It releases nicotine into the bloodstream through the skin. The Nicostop patch helps relieve symptoms of nicotine withdrawal, thereby helping increase the quitting success rate. This exportation of the manufacturing technology for a finished medical product developed by a Korean company to advanced pharmaceutical regions is a rare achievement in Korea.
May 19, 2003
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