Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s proprietary type 2 diabetes treatment, Enblo (active ingredient: enavogliflozin), is set to enter eight major markets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, including Saudi Arabia.
Daewoong Pharmaceutical announced on July 2 that it has signed a finished-product supply and export agreement for Enblo with Swiss-based Acino Pharma AG. The agreement covers eight key nations: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Iraq, and Egypt. The confirmed base contract is valued at approximately 92.6 billion won, with the total deal size reaching up to 145.2 billion won when including milestones. The contract will run for 10 years following the product's first commercial launch.
Daewoong Pharmaceutical plans to obtain marketing authorization in Saudi Arabia within the year, targeting an official commercial launch there in the first half of 2027, followed by sequential rollouts in the remaining seven countries. The company noted that this landmark agreement represents the largest global export contract signed for Enblo since its initial commercialization, and marks the first time a South Korean-developed SGLT-2 inhibitor class diabetes drug has penetrated the Middle East and Africa markets.
According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), the MENA region represents a vast and critical healthcare market with the world's highest prevalence of diabetes, currently affecting one in six adults. Data from pharmaceutical market research firm IQVIA shows that the diabetes treatment market in just four of the target countries—Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Egypt—reached 3.7946 trillion won last year. When factoring in Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, and Iraq, the actual addressable market size for Enblo is expected to be substantially larger.
Daewoong's partner, Acino, is an affiliate of Arcera Life Sciences Group, a global healthcare entity established by ADQ, a prominent sovereign wealth fund of the UAE. Headquartered in Switzerland, Acino maintains a robust distribution and sales network across the Middle East and Africa, with a strategic focus on expanding its core portfolios in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
Clinical Data Points to Key Competitive Differentiators
Enblo is a newly developed, homegrown South Korean medication designed to treat type 2 diabetes. It works by selectively inhibiting the SGLT-2 transporter, which blocks glucose reabsorption in the kidneys and promotes its excretion through urine to lower overall blood sugar levels.
Due to its exceptionally high selectivity for the SGLT-2 transporter, Enblo demonstrates blood glucose-lowering efficacy comparable to or greater than existing market choices at a fraction of the dose—requiring just 0.3 mg, which is about one-thirtieth of the dosage utilized by conventional SGLT-2 inhibitors. It has also demonstrated distinct clinical benefits in promoting weight loss and improving blood pressure metrics.
While traditional SGLT-2 inhibitors often exhibit reduced efficacy in patients with renal impairment, Daewoong confirmed that clinical data for Enblo showed significant improvements in the urinary glucose-to-creatinine ratio, fatty liver indicators, and insulin resistance markers within patient groups experiencing impaired kidney function. Given that a high proportion of diabetes patients in the MENA region also live with renal complications, the company expects these specific clinical advantages to serve as key differentiators in the local market.
"This agreement represents Enblo’s largest global export contract to date," said Park Sung-soo, CEO of Daewoong Pharmaceutical. "It holds profound significance as it marks the very first entry of a South Korean SGLT-2 inhibitor diabetes medication into the Middle East and Africa."
