Hyundai Pharmaceutical (004310.KS), the maker of insect bite treatment Bumolli, has seen its internal computer network paralyzed for a week, causing significant disruption at hospitals and pharmacies across the country. With no official statement from the company on a recovery timeline, concerns are growing that a prolonged outage could delay settlements with contract sales organizations (CSOs).
According to industry sources on Wednesday, Hyundai Pharm has been experiencing internal network failures since January 2 that remain unresolved after a week. Core operations including customer inquiries, orders, and shipments have come to a complete halt.
A week after the incident began, the company has yet to provide any guidance on the cause of the network failure, recovery schedule, or future response plans. "Checking pharmacy and hospital transaction records and accounts is completely impossible, so operations are effectively paralyzed," one Hyundai Pharm official said. "Even after a week, there has been no internal communication about the current situation."
When asked about the cause of the network failure and future response plans, Hyundai Pharm acknowledged that "there is a problem with the internal computer network" but repeatedly said only that it had "no comment."
Sales representatives are bearing the brunt of the crisis on the ground. They are reportedly being bombarded with complaints from pharmacies and hospitals asking "Why isn't the medicine arriving?", "When will you collect returns?", and "Why isn't my company mall registration being approved?"
If the situation drags on, concerns are mounting over potential delays in CSO settlements. CSOs are companies that take on sales operations on behalf of pharmaceutical firms. Since CSOs receive commission payments based on performance calculated from order and shipment data, industry observers point out that delays in data compilation due to the system failure could lead to settlement disruptions.
"When a pharmaceutical company's computer network goes down, transaction records and performance data become inaccessible, which inevitably delays finalizing settlement amounts for CSOs," one industry official said.
Criticism is also emerging over the inadequate response from a KOSPI-listed company. "System failures can happen, but it's unusual for a KOSPI-listed company to go more than a week without recovery and without providing any separate notice," one pharmaceutical industry official said.
Hyundai Pharmaceutical recorded revenue of 191.8 billion won and operating profit of 4.2 billion won last year. Its major products include insect bite treatment Bumolli, hair loss treatment Minoxyl, and dietary fiber beverage Miero Fiber.