South Korea's big three pharmaceutical ranking chart is expected to change this year as sales of Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corp. in the first three quarters beat those of Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co., the previous No. 3, their regulatory filings showed Thursday.

Yuhan Co. held its leading position with 964.4 billion won ($822.8 million) in sales in the January-September period, up 17.5 percent from a year ago, its separate financial documents said. 


Green Cross Corp. came next with 765.3 billion won in sales in the first nine months of this year, marking an 11.5 percent surge, the firm said.

Chong Kun Dang ranked third as its sales jumped 40.1 percent on-year to 612.3 billion won during the period, driven by strong sales of Type 2 diabetes drug Januvia and Gliatilin, a brain disorder treatment, its standalone financial documents noted.

Daewoong Co. took fourth place with 580.9 billion won in sales over the period, with its sales declining 4.5 percent on-year.

Hanmi Pharmaceutical slipped two notches to fifth as its sales declined 1 percent on-year to 564.1 billion won in the January-September period due to sluggish performance in the third quarter, its report showed.

In late September, Hanmi said its license deal on a lung cancer treatment with German pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim ended, which caused its shares to nosedive on the Seoul bourse. (Yonhap)