Pharmaceutical industry adds 20,000 to workforce over 5 yrs

Published : Feb 27, 2017 - 15:45 Updated : Feb 27, 2017 - 15:45

The workforce of South Korea's pharmaceutical sector has grown by more than 27 percent in five years, data showed on Monday.

A total of 94,929 people were working in the local drug industry at the end of 2016, up from 74,477 in 2011, according to the data by the Korea Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association.

The Korea Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association said on Feb. 27, 2017, that the workforce of South Korea's pharmaceutical sector has grown by more than 27 percent in five years. (Yonhap)

The KPMA said most of the 20,000 newly added employees were in the manufacturing and research departments.

The workforce in production increased 36 percent from 23,539 to 32,104, the data showed. New entrants to lab jobs also increased 35 percent, from 8,756 to 11,862.

The KPMA attributed the increased positions in research to the trend of more drug firms sharply expanding their spending on research and development in 2016.

Separate data showed that four major pharmaceutical companies -- Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co., Green Cross Corp., Daewoong Pharma and Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corp. -- spent more than 100 billion won (US$86.9 million) each on R&D in 2016.

"More than 77,000 biopharmaceutical firms create 1.66 million jobs in the United States," said a KPMA official, adding that the local drug industry is also steadily increasing job positions for doctors in R&D departments.

In contrast, the percentage of sales workers out of the total workforce at pharmaceutical companies decreased from 32.9 percent in 2011 to 27.8 percent in 2016, the data showed. (Yonhap)