[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Paul Lee] SK Biopharm announced on the 9th that it recorded sales of 90.3 billion won, operating loss of 10.7 billion won, and net loss of 18.4 billion won in the third quarter of 2023. Sales rose 1.7% year-on-year, but operating losses and net losses worsened.

The reason for the increase in losses is that SK Life Science Labs (SK Life Science Labs) has been consolidated and incorporated since this quarter, adding more than 8 billion won in judge costs. However, the overall management cost management through efficient operation and the surge in sales of the new epilepsy drug "Cenobamate" greatly increased the range of improvement in operating loss compared to the previous quarter and lowered it to around 10 billion won (+8.2 billion won).

US sales of Cenobamate (US product name: Excofree, XCOPRI) reached 75.7 billion won in the third quarter of this year, up about 19 percent from the previous quarter and 60 percent from a year earlier. This is the largest quarterly growth record (+12.2 billion won) since the second quarter.

Cenobamate's monthly prescriptions in the United States in September was 22,985, which is twice the average number of prescriptions for the 41st month of competing new drugs.

SK Biopharm also announced a mid- to long-term accelerated growth plan to achieve Cenobamate's 2029 blockbuster sales ($ 1 billion) goal. It plans to actively utilize the data accumulated during aggressive marketing, such as expanding the scope of intensive promotion from epilepsy specialists to general neurologists, and to introduce new marketing tools for the AI era.

 

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