Daewon Pharmaceutical’s Coldaewon sees robust growth in 2022

Daewon Pharmaceutical Co.‘s cold syrup Coldaewon [Photo provided by Daewon Pharmaceutical]

Coldaewon, a cold syrup manufactured by South Korea’s Daewon Pharmaceutical Co., has seen explosive growth in the over-the-counter (OTC) cold medicine market last year.

According to health market research firm IQVIA on Monday, sales of Coldaewon nearly quadrupled to 23 billion won ($17.2 million) last year from a year earlier. Sales were at the 6 billion won range since 2019 but they soared by a whopping 272 percent last year amid the shortage of cold medicines.

The cold medicine market is currently dominated by Dong-A Pharmaceutical Co.’s Panpyrin and Donghwa Pharm Co.’s Pancol.

Daewon Pharmaceutical entered the OTC cold remedies market by releasing Coldaewon in 2015. Coldaewon’s market share was 4.9 percent in 2020 and 5.1 percent in 2021 but it rose to 10.6 percent last year.

The market share of Panpyrin, on the other hand, declined to 19.5 percent last year from 23.8 percent in 2021 and that of Pancol to 17.9 percent from 21.4 percent during the same period. Coldaewon is a stick pouch cold syrup, and analysts say that its sales have increased sharply due to its convenience as it is easy to carry and take on the go amid surging demand for cold medicines during the pandemic.

Coldaewon Kids, Daewon Pharmaceutical’s cold medicine for children, also topped the children’s cold medicine market last year with sales of 9.2 billion won, up 252 percent from the previous year. It rose to the top for the first time in five years since its launch in 2017. Sales of the product’s general cold medicine type Coldaewon Kids Cold increased five-fold to 2.1 billion won last year from 400 million won in 2021.

The overall cold medicine market, in the meantime, also expanded significantly since the pandemic, with the OTC market reaching 215.3 billion won last year, up 77.5 percent from the previous year, according to IQVIA.