South Korea’s biopharmaceutical exports reach nine-month record as Europe grows

South Korea’s biopharmaceutical exports reached an estimated record $6.6 billion in January through September 2026, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said in figures reported from Seoul on Thursday, October 8. That was 15.8% more than a year earlier. The increase matters for the country’s drug exporters because it came despite a marked fall in shipments to the United States, their largest single destination.

The figure is a record for the first nine months of a year, not a final result for 2026. ChosunBiz gave the ministry’s preliminary total as $6.604 billion, compared with $5.702 billion for the same period of 2025. Yonhap rounded this year’s estimate to $6.6 billion. Neither report establishes what exporters will ship in the remaining three months.

How much did biopharmaceutical exports grow?

Biopharmaceuticals accounted for 73.4% of South Korea’s $9 billion in total pharmaceutical exports during the nine-month period, according to ChosunBiz’s account of the ministry figures. Yonhap described the share as approximately 73%. The category therefore made up nearly three-quarters of the reported pharmaceutical export value over the period, rather than representing the entire drug export market.

Exports of biopharmaceutical products were $2.07 billion in the third quarter, up 15.6% from the same quarter a year earlier, both reports said. ChosunBiz also reported $1.99 billion in the first quarter, up 11.8%, and $2.54 billion in the second, up 20.9%. On those reported comparisons, exports increased year over year in each of the first three quarters, although the rates of growth differed.

Why European destinations matter to the record

Several European destinations moved in the opposite direction. Exports to Switzerland rose 27.3% to $1.008 billion, and those to Hungary rose 28% to $919 million, according to ChosunBiz. Yonhap, using rounded figures, identified Switzerland and Hungary as the second- and third-largest destinations after the United States. Seven of the top 10 destinations were in Europe, both reports said.

ChosunBiz reported further increases in shipments to the Netherlands, up 42.4% to $628 million; Italy, up 59.6% to $300 million; Belgium, up 209.7% to $288 million; and France, up 269.1% to $203 million. These figures show where reported export value increased. They do not, on their own, show how much of the change came from prices, production volumes or individual company contracts.

The ministry linked the European growth partly to increased supplies from contract development and manufacturing organizations to global pharmaceutical companies and greater demand for biosimilars, according to ChosunBiz. Yonhap also cited CDMO services and biosimilars as supporting factors. The reports did not quantify the separate contribution of either factor to the nine-month increase.

Which biopharmaceutical products changed most?

Recombinant biopharmaceuticals remained the largest reported product group. Their exports reached $5.71 billion, up 16.8% from a year earlier and equal to 86.5% of all biopharmaceutical exports, ChosunBiz reported. That concentration helps explain why changes in this group carry substantial weight in the overall export total, even as other product categories followed different paths.

Exports of toxins and antitoxins, including botulinum toxin, climbed 43.3% to $433 million, according to ChosunBiz. Vaccine exports, by contrast, fell 21.7% to $182 million. The overall record therefore does not mean every type of biopharmaceutical product grew. The reported gains in recombinant products and toxins coincided with a decline in the vaccine category.

What remains preliminary, and what comes next?

The nine-month export total remains an estimate, and the published reporting does not provide a final 2026 figure. The destination and product breakdowns describe shipments through September; they cannot establish whether European growth or the decline in U.S. shipments will continue through year-end. The ministry’s explanation for European demand is an attributed assessment, not a measured division of the overall gain among its proposed causes.

ChosunBiz reported that a law providing regulatory support for biopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing companies is scheduled to take effect in December 2026. The ministry also plans to promote certification of raw materials and strengthen regulatory support for overseas market entry, the report said. Those are planned support measures; the available figures do not show what effect they will have on future exports.