Korea United Pharm Inc. will export two kinds of cancer-treating medicine to Poland, becoming the first Korean firm to ship such drugs to Europe, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency said Thursday.

KOTRA officials said the Korean pharmaceutical firm and Polish buyers had signed a contract to export the drugs it developed to treat lymphoma and prostate cancer.

The first drug export deal will pave the way for more medical exports to the European market, the officials said.

The deal involves two liquid anti-cancer drugs, Unistin and Etopul. The company said European clients were expected to place additional orders.

The Korean medical firm said that some European manufacturers of anti-cancer drugs were arguing with their governments over the price of cancer treatment.

“The two sides are locking horns over the price. The European governments are determined to keep the price low by importing medical products from third parties if necessary,” a company official said. “There are more European countries, such as Romania and Lithuania, contacting us on similar issues.”

The Korean medical firm said that it will submit documents to register with the European medical authorities so that it can export more anti-cancer drugs to Europe.

“It will take at least 210 days, and we expect to have our products registered by the first half of next year,” a company official said. “We signed contract with Polish buyers to sell 10 kinds of anti-cancer drugs for three years, which totals to about $3.7 million.”

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)