Mediforum Pharmaceutical (formerly C-Tri) said on Friday it swung to an operating profit of 1.5 billion won ($1.26 million) last year on record sales driven by new product launches and profitability measures.

Revenue soared 77.2 percent to 36.4 billion won and net profit came to 1.5 billion won.

Mediforum, a Korean developer of neurodegenerative disease therapeutics, acquired C-Tri last year and renamed it into the current Mediforum Pharmaceutical.

The company said its long-term initiative to focus on rare disease R&D and transform sales and marketing practices came to fruition last year. Aggressive launches of new products and removing low-margin products led to the strong performance along with a sales increase from its CSO partner, according to the company.

The company’s transformation program paid off in the end with a focus on profitability and active investment, said Mediforum president Park Jae-hyung, adding the company will continue R&D to develop neurodegenerative drugs and participate in a clinical development program for a dementia drug overseas.

Mediforum stood out among the country’s listed pharma firms with a significant sales growth rate of 82.4 percent in the first six months of last year. Its stocks are still trading on the Kosdaq under the former name C-Tri, which was down 0.2 percent at 5,500 won as of 12:57 pm in Seoul trading.

By Pulse

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