Pharmaceutical industry adds 20 , 000 to workforce over 5 yrs SEOUL , Feb . 27 ( Yonhap ) -- The workforce of South Korea ' s pharmaceutical sector has grown by more than 27 percent in five years , data showed on Monday . A total of 94 , 929 people were working in the local drug industry at the end of 2016 , up from 74 , 477 in 2011 , according to the data by the Korea Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association ( KPMA ) . The KPMA said most of the 20 , 000 newly added employees were in the manufacturing and research departments . The workforce in production increased 36 percent from 23 , 539 to 32 , 104 , the data showed . New entrants to lab jobs also increased 35 percent , from 8 , 756 to 11 , 862 . The KPMA attributed the increased positions in research to the trend of more drug firms sharply expanding their spending on research and development ( R & D ) in 2016 . Separate data showed that four major pharmaceutical companies -- Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co . , Green Cross Corp . , Daewoong Pharma and Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corp . -- spent more than 100 billion won ( US $ 86 . 9 million ) each on R & D in 2016 . " More than 77 , 000 biopharmaceutical firms create 1 . 66 million jobs in the United States , " said a KPMA official , adding that the local drug industry is also steadily increasing job positions for doctors in R & D departments . In contrast , the percentage of sales workers out of the total workforce at pharmaceutical companies decreased from 32 . 9 percent in 2011 to 27 . 8 percent in 2016 , the data showed . The Korea Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association said on Feb . 27 , 2017 , that the workforce of South Korea ' s pharmaceutical sector has grown by more than 27 percent in five years . ( Yonhap ) khj @ yna . co . kr ( END )