Despite being seemingly suppressed by the revised drug pricing system, the number of approved generic is soaring again. Hundreds of Atozet and Januvia generics have entered the market and recorded the highest number generic approvals since May last year.

In the second half of last year, the pharmaceutical companies had a vacant gap in new approval as they have already had their generics approved before the pricing system revision. However, the companies seem to jump into the generic approval competition, whenever a large generic market opens up, to take the advantageous pricing.

According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) on Mar. 2, 319 prescription generics have been authoriz