[Newsmp] South Korea’s bio-health industry, which had been soaring, grew negatively for the first time this year. However, pharmaceutical products exports continued to grow in double digits for eight consecutive months.
According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, exports of bio-health plunged 12.1% year-on-year to $1.167 billion in July.
This marked the first time in eight months that exports of the bio-health industry decreased from the same period of the previous year, and it is the first time in 15 months since April last year that the monthly exports fell below $1.2 billion.
This year, exports of the bio-health industry have continued growth due to the spread of the Omicron variant worldwide.
Starting with 29.9% growth in January, it maintained growth above 20% for three straight months, falling slightly to 14.1% in April, but recovered to above 20% in May.
However, as Omicron passed the peak, the export growth rate in June dropped to 3.8% and recorded a double-digit negative growth rate in July.
The situation came because of outbound shipments of diagnostic kits, which had been leading the rise in bio exports, posted negative growth rates due to falling global demand, the ministry said.
Moreover, although the reemergence of COVID-19 and rapid development of monkeypox diagnostic products were positive factors, some analysts said that the pressure on drug prices to fall due to intensifying competition and the base effect, which recorded high exports in the same period last year, were reflected.
As exports of the bio-health industry plummeted in July, the proportion of the bio-health industry among Korea’s total exports, also decreased to 1.9% in July from a 3% level.
Nevertheless, the cumulative seven-month export value is $10.415 billion, and still maintains a double-digit (15.4%) growth rate.
In the meantime, unlike the significant slowdown in export growth in the bio-health industry, which includes both pharmaceutical products and devices, pharmaceutical products exports continued to rise.
In July, Pharmaceutical products exports rose 18.8% year-on-year to $763 million, keeping double-digit growth for eight consecutive months since December last year, the ministry said.
This year, pharmaceutical products exports have maintained a steady growth rate of over 20% until May, but they retreated to 11.8% in June and were on the verge of falling to a single digit.
However, it rebounded to 18.8% in July, contrary to the bio-health industry, which entered negative growth.
The accumulative seven-month export value is $6.099 billion, an increase of 28.7% year-on-year, with a growth rate close to 30%.
