Green Cross Corp., a South Korean pharmaceutical company, said Monday its exports topped $200 million last year, becoming the first South Korean drugmaker to reach the mark.

The pharmaceutical firm said its outbound shipments were led by a surge in demand for vaccine products, which totaled $60 million last year, up 60 percent from a year earlier.

In 2010, the drug firm started delivering a seasonal flu vaccine to the Pan American Health Organization in the wake of an influenza outbreak, and its exports of the vaccine amounted to $38 million last year.

The PAHO is the regional office of the World Health Organization and is responsible for improving the health and living standards of countries in the Americas.

Green Cross developed the country's first flu vaccine, the GC Flu, in 2008. Previously, South Korea had imported all its flu vaccines.

"This year, we will see a continued rise in exports and seek to tap deeper into the South American region and the Middle East area as well," an official at the firm said.

Shares of Green Cross finished at 129,500 won on the Seoul bourse, up 0.78 percent from the previous session's close compared to 0.19 percent fall in benchmark KOSPI. (Yonhap)