South Korea’s first home-grown blockbuster drug has hit a milestone of 50 billion won ($42.7 million) in annual sales.

The Zemiglo franchise that includes combination pill ZemiMet developed by LG Life Sciences Ltd. surpassed 50 billion won early this month, according to the company on Monday.

Zemiglo, an innovative anti-diabetic drug, was approved in 2012 as the country’s 19th novel drug. This is the first time a Korean drugmaker has raked in more than 50 billion won in annual sales from its own proprietary drug discovery.

The best-selling medicine in Korea last year was Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Baraclude, an antiviral used to treat chronic hepatitis B, with sales of 154.8 billion won.

“There are many cases Korean manufacturers signed out-licensing deals with multinational counterparts in the course of drug development, but few led to a final commercial phase through their own efforts. The 50 billion won milestone reflects another leap in technology and commercial expertise of a Korean pharmaceutical company,” said a market watcher.

At 1:45 p.m., shares of LG Life Sciences were up 1.4 percent at 63,700 won.

Zemiglo sold 5.6 billion won in its debut year of 2013. Its sales ballooned to 14.3 billion won in 2014, 24.8 billion won in 2015, and more than 50 billion won this year.

Zemiglo, a DPP-4 inhibitor, inhibits the DPP 4 enzyme that is responsible for the inactivation and degradation of the incretin hormones, promoting insulin secretion in type 2 diabetes patients.

LG Life Sciences plans to sustain the current growth momentum by developing another combination pills that can be used to treat patients with not only diabetes but also hypertension and hyperlipidemia. The company is also active in overseas markets. Exports of the drug represent just one-tenth of total sales so far. But given the fact that clinical trials and regulatory procedures are underway in 100 countries, exports will begin to grow sharply next year, the company said. Zemiglo began to be shipped to Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica in March and a commercial launch is forthcoming in Guatemala and India.

By Kim Hye-soon

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