by Sungmin Kim
AstraZeneca and SK Corp. announced on the 19th that the drugs manufactured and produced under a strategic partnership signed in January 2018 have achieved the results of supplying 3 million diabetic populations in 98 countries worldwide. As a result, API transactions amount to about $100 million a year.
On the same day, Chairman of AstraZeneca, Leif Johansson, and CEO of SK, Jang Dong-hyun, exchanged commemorative tablets at SK Group's headquarters to congratulate them on achieving an important milestone through cooperation between the two companies. The event was attended by Swedish Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Anna Hallberg, chief of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Yoo Jeong-yeol, and director general of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Lim In-taek.
Under the agreement signed by the two companies, SK Biotech, a 100 percent subsidiary of SK Corp., manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients(API) for diabetes, including AstraZeneca’s blockbuster items "Forxiga(Dapagliflozin)" and "Onglyza(Saxagliptin)".
The raw materials manufactured and produced in South Korea will be converted into API at SK Biotech's Irish plant located in the Irish Swords, which SK Group acquired in 2018. Using this API, AstraZeneca manufactures treatments as a supplier to patients around the world.
AstraZeneca Chairman Leif Johansson said, "SK Biotech is an important strategic partner of AstraZeneca, and they are a good example of Korea’s high value and quality in manufacturing pharmaceutics," adding, "Since 2018, the two companies have provided medicines that change patients’ lives through cooperation, and further contributed to patients and society as well as business growth". AstraZeneca, along with SK Corp., is proud to support innovation and high-quality exports of the local pharmaceutical industry and, above all, contribute to addressing the unsatisfactory medical needs of patients around the world," the company said in a statement.
CEO of SK, Jang Dong-hyun said, "We have actively cooperated for common social values by providing innovative medicines to patients through partnership with AstraZeneca since 2018." “And we will continue to solidify our partnership by expanding the production of APIs for a wider variety of diseases through SK Pharmco (SK CMO integrated corporation) in the future".
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca signed a memorandum of understanding with four organizations -- the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization (KBIO) and the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association (KPBMA) -- at the Korea-Sweden Business Summit held in Seoul on Wednesday, and said they will strengthen cooperation to accelerate innovation in the Korean bio-health industry.