Celltrion Healthcare Co., marketing and distribution subsidiary of South Korean pharmaceutical company Celltrion Inc., said on Tuesday that its blood cancer biosimilar Truxima has captured over 30 percent share of the original drug market in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in just three months after its official launch in April.

According to global firm Mundipharma International Ltd., the distributing partner of Celltrion Healthcare in Europe, the market share of Truxima has been rising by more than 10 percent monthly since May in the region and has reached over 30 percent of original anticancer drug Rituxan of La Roche in the UK and the Netherlands in July.

An unnamed official from Mundipharma said that the number of hospitals buying the cheaper copycat antibody for patient prescription is growing significantly every day, leading to a higher-than-expected growth in the market share.

In fact, the market share growth of Truxima is three to four times faster than Remsima, the first biosimilar launched by Celltrion in Europe. Remsima - an autoimmune disease biosimilar - had reached 30 percent share of the original drug sales in the end of the first quarter of 2016, about a year after it was officially launched in major European markets including the UK, Germany, France, and Italy.

Truxima commanded that much of a share in just three months it hit the market upon gaining approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in February.

Celltrion’s Truxima was able to penetrate the original drug market in such short period of time as the Korean healthcare company has established market credibility and favorable brand image in the European region with its first biosimilar Remsima. The biosimilar is also 30 to 40 percent cheaper, giving it an advantage over the original drug. Sales of Truxima will expand to other European countries including Germany, Spain, Italy, and Ireland.

The overall market for Truxima’s original drug Rituxan is 7 trillion won ($6.3 billion), of which about 3 trillion won is sold in Europe. The region takes up about 30 percent of the global consumption of infliximab, the active ingredient in Remsima, whereas 45 percent of Truxima’s rituximab.

Industry insiders note that the market share of Truxima will likely outperform sales of Remsima in the European market.

By Shin Chan-ok

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