GlaxoSmithKline(GSK), once the number one in sales among the multinational pharmaceutical companies in South Korea, continued to fall.

We selected ten multinational companies that recorded the highest sales in 2015 and analyzed their sales, operating profits and number of employees based on audit reports submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service for four years from 2013 until this year. According to the analysis, GSK recorded the highest sales among multinational companies in 2012 with 473.2 billion won. However, their sales steadily fell in the last four years with 440.5 billion won in 2013, 399.4 billion won in 2014 and 309.2 billion won last year.

Last year, GSK newly established the Consumer Health Care Division with Novartis Korea, which led to a decline in sales, but even after taking this factor into consideration, their sales dropped by a third (34.6%, 163.9 billion won) in the past three years compared to their sales in 2012 and last year.

In contrast, Pfizer Korea was third in sales in 2012 with 418.8 billion won, but it claimed the top with sales close to 600 billion won after the merger with Wyeth Korea in 2013. Since then, the company has retained the top position by continuing its growth with sales amounting to 647.4 billion won last year.

The growth of Roche Korea and Boehringer Ingelheim Korea was also noticeable in the past four years. Roche, which had managed to increase its sales to over 260 billion won in 2012, saw its sales jump past 320 billion won last year, ranking at the top of the list.

The sales of Boehringer Ingelheim also climbed rapidly from 186.4 billion won in 2012 to 235.5 billion won last year.

In the case of Bayer Korea, the company managed to steadily maintain sales around the 330 billion won range from 2012. Last year this figure dropped to the 300 billion won range, but this seems to be because the company transferred the material science division to Covestro Korea.

A look at the operating profits in the last four years reveals that the top multinational companies, such as Pfizer, Roche as well as GSK all did poorly.
The company with the most depressing record is Roche. Roche continued to see its revenue grow, ranking among the top last year, but their operating profits recorded losses for four consecutive years from 2012 (-4.5 billion won) until last year (-2.7 billion won).

GSK also enjoyed good operating profits surpassing 10 billion won in 2012 and 2013, but in 2014 the company suffered operating losses of 14 billion won and in 2015 losses of 9.2 billion won.

Pfizer, which continues to record the highest amount of sales among multinational companies, also saw its operating profits increase from 2012 to 2014, but last year, the company suffered losses of 3.5 billion won and ended up with a deficit.

Among the top ten multinational companies included in the analysis, GSK was also the only company that saw a clear drop in the number of employees.

In 2012, GSK was the multinational company that hired the most number of employees with 721 on its payroll.

But in 2013, that number dropped to 639, then again to 483 last year. Compared to 2012, their workforce has been cut by a third (33%, 238 employees). This is similar to the rate at which their sales dropped last year compared to 2012.
On the other hand, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-Aventis, Janssen Korea and Baxter all had a bigger workforce last year than in 2012.

Meanwhile, MSD-Korea and BMS Korea did not submit their audit reports for they are limited liability companies.

leejs@docdocdoc.co.kr

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