[THE INVESTOR] Local pharmaceutical companies showed a less than 1 percent increase in their return-on-equity ratio in the first quarter of this year, data showed on June 30.

The ratio -- a measure of corporate profitability -- of 80 public pharmaceutical companies rose just 0.2 percent on-year to 1.9 percent, according to Pharmscore, a provider of analysis on health and medical industry. 



Shareholders’ equity of the 80 firms stood at 15.059 trillion won (US$13 billion), up 1.89 trillion won from the same period in the previous year. Their net income increased by 54.1 billion won to 280.4 billion won.

Medytox recorded the highest ROE of 11.9 percent, which was 6.3 percent higher than the industry average.

Samjin Pharmaceutical and Bukwang Pharmaceutical simultaneously ranked second place with 5.4 percent ratios, followed by Hwail Pharmaceutical with 5.3 percent. Hanmi Pharmaceutical and Daehan Pharmaceutical each posted 5.2 percent ROE, while Wooridul Pharmaceutical had 5 percent, LG Life Science 4.5 percent, Yuhan Corp. with 4.2 percent, and Dongkook Pharmaceutical with 4.1 percent.

“ROE must be checked out because a high figure is an indication of solid profit,” said Lee Sul-hyun, a researcher at Pharmscore. “Companies must continuously increase profitability or utilize assets to maximize earnings and attain higher ratios.”

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)