[Edaily Reporter Kim Seung-kwon ] South Korea’s pharmaceutical and biotech industry is entering an era of “data competition.” A company’s ability to respond to market dynamics hinges on how quickly and accurately it can analyze trends in drug prescriptions, sales, and supply and demand.

At the center of this trend is a homegrown pharmtech company: “BRP Connect,” a subsidiary of “Baropharm”—South Korea’s leading pharmacy platform founded by practicing pharmacists. The data platforms they have launched—“BRPinsight” and “BRPIndepth”—are sending shockwaves through the pharmaceutical market. PharmDaily recently met with Park Young-kyu, CEO of BRP Connect, to discuss the company’s technological differentiation.

“Eliminating the one-month time lag and escaping the Excel nightmare”… Attracted 17 clients in just six months through real-time data and visualization

CEO Park Young-kyu is a “field expert” who spent 11 years in sales and marketing at Daewoong Pharmaceutical and later oversaw business development (BD) at companies such as Takeda Pharmaceutical and Merz Korea. During a meeting at BRP Connect’s headquarters on the 22nd, CEO Park revealed that he discovered the blueprint for his business from the “data thirst” in the pharmaceutical industry—a problem he felt acutely during his time as a frontline executive.

“The biggest limitation was that while pharmaceutical companies have a clear understanding of their own data flows, they lack real-time data on their competitors and the overall market,” Park pointed out. “Even after launching a new product and conducting a major promotional campaign, they had to wait at least a month to see the results.” He added, “Decisions need to be made today, but the data to support them was always stuck in the past.”

Recalling the moment he first accessed real-time distribution data from approximately 24,000 pharmacies nationwide, he said, “I was convinced that this was a powerful tool capable of completely transforming the very way decisions are made in the pharmaceutical industry.” Based on this conviction, CEO Park joined the company as a division head in August 2025 and was promoted to CEO this past January, where he is now leading the innovation of a homegrown data platform.

Until now, pharmaceutical companies have effectively relied on prescription data from global firms like IQVIA or domestic providers such as UBIST as the industry standard for analyzing their product sales and market share. However, these data sets are complex to aggregate and process, resulting in a critical “time lag” that typically means market changes can only be identified one to three months after they occur. In a rapidly changing market, this meant companies were forced to rely on post-hoc analysis rather than proactive responses.

BRP Connect, based on pharmacy distribution data, breaks down overall market changes on a “weekly basis” and key products down to a “daily basis,” dramatically reducing this time lag to about one week. The secret lies in the inventory structure of prescription drugs (ETC), which pharmacies typically maintain for only 2–3 days. The near-zero time lag between when a drug is distributed and when it is prescribed to a patient, combined with the overwhelming nationwide distribution network of its parent company, BaroPharm, has made it possible to gauge real-time demand.

CEO Park explained, “With traditional lagging data, it’s impossible to immediately detect shifts in consumer and prescribing trends, so our operational teams don’t grasp the situation until one or two months after the market has already shifted.” He added, “In contrast, our data is updated on a daily and weekly basis, allowing us to capture trends as close as possible to the moment an event occurs.” For example, when reimbursement criteria for choline alfoscerate formulations were tightened last year, BaroPharm immediately detected a 52% surge in prescriptions for over-the-counter medications—such as ginkgo biloba formulations—as a ripple effect.

In addition to speed, intuitive “data visualization” is another powerful tool. It has condensed the struggles of field staff—who previously had to rely on massive raw Excel files to generate pivot tables—into a single “dashboard.” By designing supply, prescription, and sales data into a multi-layered structure and providing it tailored to each company’s needs, the system has received rave reviews from the field, with users saying they have “escaped Excel hell.”

Users can view at a glance via the dashboard the market share reversal—where “Mounjaro” is fiercely catching up to “Wegovy” in the GLP-1 obesity treatment market, where global pharmaceutical companies are engaged in cutthroat competition—as well as real-time drug shortages at pharmacies nationwide and recommendations for alternative medications. As a result, just over six months after the full launch of its service, BRP Insight has secured 17 major domestic and international pharmaceutical companies—including Bayer Korea—as paying customers.

Equipped with AI Demand Forecasting… Leaping Forward as the “Data Central Nervous System” Connecting K-Healthcare

CEO Park’s vision extends beyond a simple data subscription platform to future demand forecasting. Currently, BRP Connect is expanding its scope into high-value-added data consulting areas, such as target analysis for new drug launches and preemptive strategies for generics. Furthermore, the company plans to introduce an AI-based demand forecasting model within the year by integrating data from diverse industries. The market realignment expected around the launch of “Saxenda” generics—which is forecast to spark explosive competition by the end of this year—is expected to serve as the first test of this AI model’s accuracy.

The company is also fulfilling its social responsibility toward public health and healthcare. Guided by the philosophy that disruptions in the supply of pharmaceuticals directly impact patient care, it is providing real-time out-of-stock data free of charge to the National Assembly, the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Its parent company, BaroPharm, has also seen its revenue skyrocket over the past two years and is currently undergoing preliminary screening for a KOSDAQ listing, raising expectations for further business synergies.

CEO Park presented a solid blueprint for BRP Connect’s future direction. “Within the next three years, we will completely transform the existing pharmaceutical data market—where monthly lagging data was once the norm—into a system based on real-time data updated weekly and daily,” he said. “Our goal is to establish ourselves, within ten years, as the massive central nervous system of South Korea’s pharmaceutical data, seamlessly connecting pharmaceutical companies, distributors, pharmacies, and government agencies.”

“While we are currently focused on the pharmaceutical sector, the scalability of the source data we handle is limitless,” he said. “In the long term, we will expand our reach across the entire healthcare spectrum, including insurance and medical AI, and build the premier pharmtech data hub so that, in the future, when people ask, ‘Where should we look to understand the trends in the Korean healthcare market?,’ BRP Connect will be the first answer that comes to mind.”