The Korean pharmaceutical industry is characterized by generic competition upon the original drug’s patent expiry. When a new drug's patent expires, companies develop products that contain the ingredients for marketing. Combination drugs, reformulated drugs, and generic drugs containing patent-expired drug ingredients are the weapons of domestic pharmaceutical companies.

With more than 200 finished drug pharmaceutical companies focusing on the market for patent-expired drugs, it is indeed an inefficient industry. If 10 of these pharmaceutical companies devoted to new drug development, the industry would have been bigger with be less excessive competition.

However, in the 100-year