Message from the Management Team

At PharmaEssentia, we have been committed to development of new drugs in the field of hematological diseases since our establishment. We are actively developing additional indications and investing in research across different disease domains to promote global patient access to medication and enhance patient health and well-being. Thanks to continuous growth in global sales of Ropeg, PharmaEssentia achieved significant operational breakthroughs in 2024, with annual revenue reaching NT$9.73 billion, a year-on-year increase of 91%. Operating profit was NT$1.74 billion, net profit was NT$2.97 billion, and earnings per share was NT$8.96; operating profit, net profit, and earnings per share all reached record heights.

PharmaEssentia also delivered excellent environmental, social, and governance sustainability performance in 2024:

Environmental (E): In 2024, we introduced the ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System at our Taichung Plant for the first time; formed an implementation team to conduct risk assessments, adopt response measures, and execute management system procedures; and obtained third-party verification at the end of the year. We also conducted our first greenhouse gas inventory of our Taipei Headquarters in 2024, expanding inventory scope beyond existing greenhouse inventories already carried out at our Taichung Plant, and completed ISO 14064-1 verification for 2023. In future, we will continue to conduct greenhouse gas inventories, expand inventory scope, and set carbon reduction targets aligned with our sustainability commitments. To improve energy efficiency in production processes, PharmaEssentia invested NT$5,500,000 in energy-saving machinery and equipment, replacing air compressors and introducing energy-saving water chillers, reducing energy usage by 158,000 kWh from 2023-2024, equivalent to 78.073 tCO2e.

Social (S): PharmaEssentia’s mission is to promote access to medicine and improve patient health and well-being. In 2024, 54 patients benefited from compassionate use and 1,448 patients were enrolled in clinical trials around the globe. We continued to implement patient support programs in Taiwan, Japan, and the US, and also participated in international myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) academic exchange activities and local MPN community empowerment activities to enhance disease knowledge of healthcare professionals, strengthen doctor-patient relationships, and help patients use medications appropriately, leveraging industrial empowerment activities to help more patients obtain high-quality drugs.

Governance (G): A new board of directors with three female directors took office in 2024, and the number of independent directors were increased from three to four to strengthen board diversity and independence. PharmaEssentia enhanced information security protection capabilities, established a comprehensive information security management framework, and officially obtained ISO 27001:2022 Information Security Management System verification in 2024. We also strengthened intellectual property and trademark protections of our pharmaceutical R&D achievements by regularly monitoring similar trademarks worldwide throughout 2024 and using “Invention Mining” methods to supplement our R&D achievements. Products under development are protected in the US by provisional patents which safeguard emerging technologies.

We stand ready to embark on a new chapter and have formulated a five-year sustainable development roadmap encompassing environmental, social, and governance aspects based on our sustainability performance in recent years. We actively integrate departmental resources to achieve sustainability targets and exert positive corporate influence on stakeholders. PharmaEssentia’s significant growth in 2024 will benefit our corporate governance, pharmaceutical R&D, product safety, environmental protection, and social participation performance; fuel our continued growth in the biopharmaceutical industry; and enable us to become a benchmark enterprise.

The world entered a post-pandemic era in 2024, but the Russo-Ukrainian War, Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, persistent global inflation, and extreme climate events continue to pose significant challenges to the international landscape.

Despite global turmoil, we at PharmaEssentia have continued to uphold our founding mission. We invested substantial amounts of resources and manpower in new drug development by adding R&D personnel at operational sites and establishing the PharmaEssentia Innovation Research Center in Boston, USA. In 2024, we made significant progress on expanding indications for our independently developed drug Ropeg. All participants in the SURPASS ET Phase III global clinical trial for essential thrombocythemia (ET) completed trial procedures in November (LPLV) with impressive results. We plan to begin submitting marketing authorization applications in Taiwan, the US, China, Korea, and Japan starting in 2025, and expect to obtain marketing authorizations in 2026. PharmaEssentia aims to continue diversifying product pipelines and increasing indications for related disease areas to effectively meet the needs of patients worldwide. Ropeg has already obtained marketing authorizations in over 40 countries. In 2024, we also submitted marketing authorization applications for treatment of polycythemia vera (PV) in Hong Kong and some South American regions, and expect to obtain marketing authorizations in Brazil and Argentina by mid-2025. We look forward to strengthening collaborations with local medical institutions and patient organizations to increase Ropeg’s market share. In 2022, we initiated construction on our Taichung Houli Plant and Hsinchu Zhubei Plant, and plan to commence mass production and commercial sales in 2026, which will increase our production capacity and drive corporate growth.

PharmaEssentia has also made impressive progress on sustainable development. Internally, we emphasize employee compensation, welfare, and career developments, striving to create a diverse, equal, and inclusive workplace with human rights protections. We also amended our human rights policies, strengthened our human rights commitments, conducted assessments on human rights risks to identify potential human rights risks in the biopharmaceutical industry, and formulated corresponding mitigation and remediation measures. Externally, PharmaEssentia has invested corporate resources and manpower in caring for patients, the elderly, schoolchildren, women, and other socially marginalized groups. We have long supported a variety of public welfare activities, including health promotion activities in rural communities, biodiversity education for schoolchildren, and sponsorships for local classical music activities. Additionally, PharmaEssentia Japan extended our social influence in 2024 by providing disaster relief donations for the Noto Peninsula earthquake.

PharmaEssentia’s sustainability efforts in 2024 received great acclaim from external organizations. We were awarded the Corporate Sustainability Report Platinum Award in Healthcare for the third consecutive year. US National Comprehensive Cancer Network treatment guidelines continue to recommend Ropeg as the first-choice of treatment for PV patients of all risk levels, and CSCO treatment guidelines also recommend Ropeg as the first-line, first-choice cytoreductive drug for PV. We also received the Taiwan BIO Awards Outstanding Company of the Year Gold Award in 2024. Following our first inclusion in S&P Global’s Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) in 2023, we made further advancements in 2024 by being included in the CSA again, ranking in the top 5% of global biotechnology companies for the first time, and receiving the “Industry Mover” award. In December 2024, we became the first Taiwanese biopharmaceutical company to be included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) Emerging Market Index, demonstrating international recognition of our sustainability commitments.