September 12th. Seoul.

Boryung Pharmaceuticals (보령제약), one of Korea's major pharma players, announced on September 9th that they have successfully received a marketing approval for their novel drug (fimasartan) for treatment of hypertension.

Fimasartan is one of several drugs affiliated with angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB), with a selective AT1 receptor blockade effect.

The product will be marketed in Korea under the brand name Kanarb (카나브).

Kanarb (카나브) marks the 15th novel drug developed by the domestic drug manufacturers.

According to Boryung's (보령제약) statement, the clinical trials have indicated that fimasartan exerted an antihypertensive effect more rapidly and potently than losartan, the original ARB-class drug marketed.

The statement also said that fimasartan was well tolerated in animal toxicology studies, and no genotoxicity or mutagenicity was observed.

The ARBs are the dominant drug class, and they account for over half of the antihypertensive market totaling about 1.4 trillion won, by sales.

Prior to Kanarb, there were 14 novel drugs that have been developed by Korean pharma companies. However, all of them have not been able to enjoy their share of success.

There are several reasons, but the market consensus is that these so-called "novel" drugs are not, in fact, really "novel enough" to compete with the original drugs marketed by major international pharma giants.

In addition, the amount of R&D investment money allocated, and actually executed, by domestic companies have relatively not been as extensive as compared to the major international players.