The Republic of Korea has a total area of 99,222 square kilometres, and consists of the southern part of the Korean peninsula in eastern Asia. The capital city and commercial centre is Seoul, situated in the northwest of South Korea, about 63 kilometres from the North Korean border.
The South Korean pharmaceutical market grew 13.5% in 2004 to US$5.8bn, driven by anticancers, antihypertensives, lipid-lowering agents and antidiabetics, which were buoyed by the rapid increase in the elderly population. The ethical market grew 15% (versue 3% for OTC). The market share of multinational corporations in 2004 was 43% in the ethical market and 34% in the total pharmaceutical market.
Successful launches, strong performances from marketed products like Plavix (clopidogrel), Neurontin (gabapentin), Cialis (tadalafil) and Glivec (imatinib), and a rapid rise in generics, were key contributors to growth.
However, the Korea healthcare system has experienced an explosive rise in costs and a widening health insurance deficit. Some of the factors fuelling healthcare spending are an oversupply of doctors, lack of a gatekeeper system and ageing population profile. Reforms to the healthcare system which began in the late 1990s aim to move the Korean healthcare system towards those of the US and Europe, and away from the old Japanese model.
