MedyTox Inc., South Korea’s leading and pure-play botulinum toxin maker, has added a marketing and distribution unit ahead of its planned launch of house cosmetics label next year.

The company said on Friday its local subsidiary MedyTox Korea signed an agreement on Thursday to acquire a nearly 60 percent stake in Highway One, a Korean distributor of overseas cosmetics and beauty products across Korea and some places in Asia. The distributor owns marketing rights to more than 100 makeup brands including Ziaja of Poland and Kneipp of Germany.

MedyTox has developed cosmetics materials based on its biotech expertise, with a goal to launch its cosmetics under its own label by 2020.

Medytox Korea president Yang Ki-hyuk said the acquisition of Highway One will pave the way for fast penetration of Medytox’ first cosmetics brand next year.

The biopharma company has been bulking up fast. It expanded a supply of botox and filler products to Medibloom China, a 50:50 joint venture with China’s Bloomage Biotechnology built to capitalize on China’s growing botox market.

More recently, MedyTox launched Coretox, a new botox product aimed to reduce the risk of resistance, an ongoing concern after repeated injections. Coretox marks the third product in the company’s Botox lineup, following Medytoxin, the first locally developed Botox product, and Innotox, the world`s first liquid toxin formulation. MedyTox claims it is the first in the world that has developed three types of Botox formulations.

By Kim Byung-ho and Minu Kim

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