Green Cross

green Cross became the second-biggest drug manufacturer in Korea in terms of quarterly revenue, as the outbreak of Influenza A boosted demand for seasonal flu vaccines.

The company is expected to see its sales further rise in the fourth quarter when it will supply H1N1 flu vaccines, which may make the company the No. 2 drug firm on an annual basis.

Green Cross posted revenues of 159 billion won in the third quarter, while Dong-A Pharmaceutical topped sales with 208.3 billion won.

Green Gross ranked fifth in terms of annual sales for the past five years, behind Dong-A Hanmi Pharmaceutical, Yuhan Corp. and Daewoong Pharmaceutical.

In the third quarter, Hanmi Pharmaceutical dropped to third with 155.8 billion won in sales, followed by Yuhan Corp. with 155.5 billion won.

"Our vaccine business posted a 43 percent rise in sales in the third quarter from a year ago," an official of Green Cross said. "The rise resulted from soaring demand for flu vaccines and other vaccines in the aftermath of the outbreak of H1N1 flu," the official said.

The vaccine maker is expected to supply 12 million doses in total this year. Mass vaccination of about 17.1 million people, or 35 percent of the population, has started in late October.

"Suppose Green Cross supply 12 million doses of H1N1 flu vaccines this year, it is expected to see its revenue jump 90.2 percent to 266.1 billion won in the fourth quarter year-on-year," Cho Yoon-jeong, an analyst at Hana Daetoo Securities, said

In terms of accumulated revenue this year, Yuhan Corp. ranked second with 474.8 billion won, followed by Hanmi Pharmaceutical with 462.3 billion won and Green Cross with 417.9 billion won.

The Influenza A virus is rapidly spreading in Korea, which has led the government to raise the flu alert to the highest level yesterday.

Since the first confirmed case was reported here in early May, the H1N1 virus has claimed the lives of 42 Koreans as of Tuesday, with average of 8,857 people per day having caught the disease last week, twice as many as the number the previous week.