Sweden’s Recipharm has agreed to extend a manufacturing and supply agreement for Erdosteine API with Korean drugs firm Daewoong Pharmaceutical. The existing contract has been extended by 10 years through to 2025. Under the terms, Daewoong will buy minimum quantities of Erdosteine API worth around €25 million a year from Recipharm group company Edmond Pharma. In return, Daewoong will get exclusive rights to sell the original product in Korea and Thailand and to register and market all new Erdosteine products Edmond Pharma is currently developing.

Erdosteine, a treatment for acute and chronic respiratory diseases, has a unique mechanism of action. It is a mucolitic with anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant characteristics. Currently, 75% of Erdosteine sold worldwide is supplied by Edmond Pharma.

Pierfrancesco Manzo, Recipharm’s sales and business development director for Erdosteine, said the agreement provides the basis for significant new growth in Korea. Sold under the name Erdos, the product is a leading respiratory treatment in Korea with around 46 million capsules and 700,000 suspensions sold in 2014.