JW Holdings will urgently export antibiotics used for treatment of patients infected with COVID-19 to Luxembourg and South Africa, a company spokesman said on May 14.
The product exported to Luxembourg is JW Levofloxacin Inj. (component: levofloxacin), a quinolone antibiotic that is effective in respiratory and sinusitis. Unlike ordinary injections, levofloxacin is mixed with saline, so it is a pre mixture sap using without a separate dilution process.
The emergency drug supply was made at the request of Luxembourg's representative in Korea. The company plans to export the drug on May 19.
In addition, JW Holdings won a large-scale emergency bid conducted by the South African government in collaboration with local trading company Austell Laboratories as demand for Carbapenem-based antibiotics soared in South Africa.
By doing so, the company will supply twice the amount of Prepenem inject. (main ingredient: imipenem) that it has contracted annually.
Prepenem injection is the world's first generic of imipenem developed by JW Pharmaceutical in 2004 and is used to treat severe infections such as pneumonia and abdominal infections.
An official from JW Holdings said, "The demand for antibiotics for the treatment of severe patients is rapidly increasing in the situation of COVID-19 Pandemic," and added, "We will make efforts to expand exports to countries that are having difficulty supplying antibiotics, a typical emergency medicine."
Meanwhile, JW Pharmaceutical has gained global competitiveness in the field of carbapenem-based antibiotics since it succeeded in developing the world's first generic imipenem.
Starting with imipenem, JW Pharmaceutical has a factory dedicated to raw material synthesis in Sihwa and a factory for finished products in Dangjin and is using it as an overseas export base.
