Korean Genewel’s pain-relief kit Welpass hits big

[Courtesy of Genewel]

A cesarean section is a classic example of surgery that involves an incision in the abdomen and can be very painful until the wound heals. In order to reduce postoperative pain as much as possible, a thin tube is inserted into the surgical part and a small amount of local anesthetic is administered. Yet, it is very cumbersome to connect the tube to a drug infusion pump and remove the former afterwards.

However, a technology that can reduce pain by simply applying drugs to the surgical site without going through this process has been developed and is going viral in hospitals.

It reduces the amount of local anesthetic by one-eighth compared with existing products, and the procedure can be performed simply by directly applying gel and drugs without separate devices such as tubes. Surgeons say it is easy to use and improves the quality of postoperative recovery and care for patients.

The product name is Welpass, a pain-reducing drug delivery kit developed and launched by Genewel Co., a biomedical device company of Dongsung Chemical Co.

“We have begun supplying the new product Welpass in earnest, mainly to large general hospitals in Korea such as Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Severance Hospital, and Samsung Medical Center,” said Han Sang-deok, CEO of Genewel, in a recent interview with Maeil Business Newspaper. “We expect to expand the number of clients to 146 from 77 in the second half of this year.”

Founded in 2000, Genewel has diversified its business into bio wound care, bio surgery, and cosmetics by applying the polyurethane technology of Dongsung Chemical, the flagship affiliate of Dongsung Group, to the bio healthcare business. Last year, the proportion of sales by business was 61 percent for bio wound care, 38 percent for bio surgeries, and 1 percent for cosmetics.

Genewel’s flagship product is Medifoam, a wound covering material. Commonly referred to as a “wet bandage,” it is a medical device that protects the skin when it is wounded by burns or cuts and aids recovery. Genewel, which succeeded in localizing this wound covering material for the first time in Korea in 2002, currently holds the top spot in the over the counter (OTC) drugs market.

The company is continuously expanding its product lineup. With a portfolio of 14 products segmented by wound area and care purpose, including Medifoam N for deep wounds, Medifoam H Beauty for facial problem wounds, and Medifoam Scargel for scars and submucosal wounds, the company recorded an average annual growth of 18 percent from 2020 to 2022.

Another growing business of the company is biosurgery. Generally, pain management is divided into pre-operative and post-operative types. Welpass, which Genewel introduced in 2015 after six years of research and development, is a product developed for post-operative pain management. “Existing products have to administer drugs through a pain control device, which is quite inconvenient, but Welpass only needs to be applied to the painful area after surgery,” said Han. “Its biggest strength is that it is convenient not only for medical staff but also for patients.”

Welpass is equipped with release control technology. It is a technology that designs drugs to be delivered efficiently in the required amount to the target area in the body and released gradually. “We plan to expand the range of applicable drugs, formulations, and release times in the future,” said Han. In particular, Welpass, which uses non-narcotic painkillers, contains less local anesthetic with the same pain management effect and has secured safety against side effects that anesthetics can cause.