"Do you know where to buy Champ Q Vita?" Sold out in just two months... a Honey Butter Chip-style craze in pharma

[The Financial News] Dong-A Pharmaceutical, which sells the CHAMP series of fever reducers for infants and children, is creating a sensation with its children’s vitamin "Champ Q Vita Syrup," which sold out just two months after launch. Industry observers say this shows how important it is to expand product lineups based on brand trust in the children’s medicine market. Since the brand that began with the Champ antipyretic has naturally expanded into recovery and condition-management products and successfully drawn consumer interest, attention is now turning to whether Dong-A Pharmaceutical’s Champ Series children’s medicines will be expanded further.
According to industry sources on the 29th, posts asking "Where can I buy Champ Q Vita Syrup?" and "Pharmacies that sell Champ Q Vita Syrup at a good price" have recently been popping up across parenting communities and online moms’ forums. Because it is classified as an over-the-counter (OTC) medicine rather than a regular retail vitamin, word of mouth has spread quickly on the back of trust in its effectiveness and safety. Thanks to this, Champ Q Vita Syrup, a children’s vitamin launched in November last year, saw its entire initial batch sell out within two months. On the 28th, when we visited six pharmacies in the cluster near Jongno 5(o)-ga Station to ask about stock, every one of them replied that they had "none at all."
Champ Q Vita Syrup is a nutritional supplement for children recovering from colds, designed to help improve fatigue and physical weakness that appear during and after illness. It has drawn particular attention in winter, when many children lose their appetite after a cold or complain of pain in the mouth, because it can help relieve mouth sores. Unlike existing children’s medicines that focus on fever reduction or pain relief, this product emphasizes care during the recovery phase, which analysts say has driven demand.
The pharmaceutical industry views this performance as unusual, noting that it is rare for a new product to sell out in such a short period. In the OTC market, it often takes time to build consumer trust. Champ Q Vita Syrup quickly gained recognition even without large-scale marketing campaigns, and analysts say this was made possible by the long-standing trust in the CHAMP brand.
CHAMP was first launched in 1993 as a children’s fever reducer and has since become one of the leading brands in South Korea’s children’s medicine market for more than 30 years. It began as a single antipyretic and analgesic product, but later diversified into symptom-specific products such as cold medicine for nasal symptoms and for sore throats, while also broadening its target age range. More recently, the brand has moved beyond fever reducers into products such as the vitamin ChamCool Vita and the ChamCool Cooling Gel Sheet for physical cooling, evolving into a comprehensive children’s care brand.
Champ Q Vita Syrup was introduced as part of this trend and is being cited as a successful example of expanding the lineup from a fever-focused image to one that also covers recovery and condition management. Rather than relying on a single hit product, Dong-A Pharmaceutical has gradually expanded function- and situation-specific product groups based on brand trust, and this strategy is now paying off in the market.
Dong-A Pharmaceutical, the manufacturer, is currently ramping up production to meet rising demand. A Dong-A Pharmaceutical representative said, "We are running the Dong-A Pharmaceutical Icheon Plant at full capacity to prepare additional supply," adding, "If all goes well, products will begin to be shipped out sequentially as early as early February."
wonder@fnnews.com Jung Sang-hee Reporter