South Korean company Tonymoly has acquired a 47.6 percent stake in preparations maker Tai Guk Pharma in a purchase which will make it the company’s largest stakeholder.

The $12.4million purchase will see Tonymoly create functional cosmetics by joining its cosmetics manufacturing technology with Tai Guk Pharma’s expertise in medicine making, in a bid to sell the resulting product through Tai Guk to pharmacies.

Tonymoly is said to be leaving the management of the company to Tai Guk, which produces external applications such as drugs, quasi-drugs, health foods, ointments, creams and gels, and is said to produce 17 million pieces of 80 external application items annually.