Русский
St. Petersburg-based Vertex has delivered the first shipment of medications to North Korea, the company has reported. The shipment comprises around 19,400 packages valued at ₽5.35 million (US$75,000), containing generic cardiac medications in various packaging sizes with the active ingredients lisinopril and losartan; a dementia medication, and asthma medications.
These will be available in the retail and hospital segments of North Korea’s pharmaceutical market, with sales in the country’s pharmacies scheduled to launch in early June. North Korea is Vertex’s first export destination in East Asia and second in the Asia-Pacific region. It has a population of about 26.5 million.
Vertex primarily exports pharmaceuticals to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Laos, and North Korea.
Founded in 1999, Vertex’s production complex has a production capacity of up to 200 million packages per year. It obtained permission to build an additional production and warehouse facility totaling over 22,000 square meters in the Saint Petersburg Special Economic Zone last year, and is pinning its future growth development strategy, like many Russian companies, on Eastern markets. Vertex’s portfolio currently includes over 430 products, of which over 310 are medications, and the remaining products are cosmetics and dietary supplements under its own brands.
