April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] An affiliate of Korean biopharmaceutical firm Celltrion said on Oct. 15 that the market share of its biosimilar drug Truxima surpassed 30 percent in Europe during the second quarter.

The combined market share of the biosimilar, which can be used to treat blood cancer, came to 32 percent in 18 European countries during the April-June period, Celltrion Healthcare said in a press release. The drug is based on Rituxan, originally developed by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding.

After Truxima began selling in Britain following approval from a European regulator, the drug expanded to the 18 nations, including Germany, France and Italy. The drug is set to be sold in 22 European countries by the first half of next year.

In February 2017, the European Medicines Agency accepted Celltrion’s application to sell the antibody biosimilar, which is used in the treatment of a number of diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and non-Hodgkin‘s lymphoma, a type of leukemia.

The drug is sold in the European countries at a discount to the current list price of Rituxan, the company said.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)