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Dalim Tissen Co., a mid-sized pharmaceutical company in South Korea, is drawing attention for its successful development of a CollaStat, a hemostatic agent based on collagen technology, 10 years after research began.

According to Dalim Tissen on Monday, the company recently signed a contract with Medtronic Inc., the world’s largest medical device company, to supply CollaStat. It is also taking steps to register the product in 20 countries including the U.K., New Zealand, and Thailand.

CollaStat is used to control the bleeding of tissues in the body through injection during surgery. It leads to hemostasis within two minutes on average and has proven its safety in heart and spine surgeries that come with a lot of bleeding.

Dalim Tissen is a bio-medical device company that grew under the leadership of Dalim Group Chairman Chung Jong-sup after the acquisition of Regen Med, a startup, in 2006.

“It is very rare for a domestic pharmaceutical company to have a production process for medical collagen,” Chung said in a recent interview with Maeil Business Newspaper.

“CollaStat started to perform well in overseas markets for its hemostatic effect that matches Floseal, the world’s most recognized collagen-based hemostatic agent produced by U.S. Baxter International Inc.”

The company’s investment over the past 10 years in the development of CollaStat alone has exceeded 10 billion won ($7.6 million).

CollaStat is also supplied to university hospitals in Korea. The domestic hemostatic agent market is worth 70 billion won.

“Imported products account for about 30 billion won of the market, and CollaStat is expected to generate sales of about 15 billion won this year,” Chung said.

Dalim Tissen has also developed an anti-adhesion gel Collabarrier, which is used to reduce adhesions in thyroid, uterine cavity, and abdominal cavity surgeries. Collabarrier has been approved for its use in Europe, including Greece, and is engaged in the approval process in Taiwan and France.

Chung is a pharmacist-turned-entrepreneur.

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Influenced by his father who was a pharmacist, he went to Kyung Hee University College of Pharmacy and founded Dalim Corp., the origin of the Dalim Group, in 1981. He has been working in the pharmaceutical industry for over 40 years.

The company acquired Clover Pharmaceuticals to create Dalim Biotech Co. in 2000 and Dalim Tissen in 2006.

Dalim Corp. is engaged in the sales and research and development of medical devices, and Dalim Biotech is highly recognized for specialty drugs for endocrine and metabolic diseases and diabetes.

Dalim Biotech’s Synthyroxine Tab is a treatment for thyroid diseases made from levothyroxine sodium hydrate. The company diversified the dosage units of Synthyroxine Tab for convenience and released a product specifically for children, which was well received by the medical community.

As thyroid hormones are prescribed in proportion to body weight, splitting prescriptions or pills has caused great inconvenience in absence of diversified dosages. Only a few pharmaceutical companies including Dalim Biotech are manufacturing thyroid treatments for children as they are less profitable.

Chung has great attachment to the prescription medication business despite its low profitability. He said that the development manager opposed the development due to low profitability but could not let it go when thinking about patients.

“How could I abandon it when 2 million won worth of thyroid treatments for children are being sold every month,” Chung said. “It could have been replaced with a more profitable product, but we made the decision with a focus on patients.”

He also added that many university hospitals only use Dalim products as medical staff have trust in them.

Chung’s management philosophy is also reflected in the corporate name Dalim, a term that combines “many” and “forest.”

It stands for the company’s motto to develop good medical products and contribute to public health, just as a forest creates air to sustain life. Dalim Biotech’s best-selling product is Dicamax, a vitamin D supplement.

It gathers growing interest as research results have shown that vitamin D helps improve not just bone health but also immunity. Dicamax D Tab accounts for about 40 percent of the vitamin D market.