Recipharm signs $25m API contract extension with SK’s Daewoong

The Swedish contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO)’s daughter company Edmond Pharma extended its existing contract to manufacture the active pharmaceutical ingredient until 2025 and increased the order volume. The organisations first signed a licensing agreement for Erdosteine, which Edmond discovered, in 1994.

Edmond Pharma will synthesise the API at Recipharm’s Paderno Dugnano facility, located just outside of Milan, Italy. Daewoong will manufacture the finished product at its South Korean facilities. Under the agreement, Daewoong will exclusively market the drug and any future formulations in Thailand and Korea, where it is known as ERDOS.

Erdosteine currently comes in capsule, sachet, suspension and dispersible tablet versions. It is prescribed for acute and chronic respiratory diseases and its API has several actions: muco-modulatory, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant. The drug is sold in over 40 countries, with 75% of this API volume supplied by Edmond Pharma.

‘Growth in Korea’​

Pierfrancesco Manzo, Recipharm, commented ”Daewoong Pharmaceutical is our first customer for the purchase of our Erdosteine API. We are therefore delighted to have secured this substantial extension of our contract with the company and believe strongly that this sets the basis for significant new growth of Erdosteine in Korea.​

“Indeed, thanks to Daewoong’s strong commitment on the scientific promotion of the product and our constant support in terms of clinical development, ERDOS has become a leading product in the Korean respiratory market with around 46 million capsules and 700 thousand suspensions sold in 2014 alone​.”