Published : Oct. 11, 2017 - 16:00
South Korean pharmaceutical company Yuhan Corp. said Wednesday that it had become Samsung Bioepis’ exclusive marketing partner to sell two of Samsung’s biosimilar drugs in Korea, replacing the role of MSD Korea.
The two companies have signed an agreement under which Yuhan will exclusively market and sell Samsung’s biosimilars referencing Enbrel and Remicade in Korea, Yuhan said.
Previously, US-based MSD, or Merck & Co., had sold the two Samsung-developed biosimilars, which are marketed locally under the names Brenzys and Renflexis.
Though MSD will no longer be marketing Samsung’s drugs in Korea, the US drugmaker will continue to remain Samsung’s partner in the US and Europe, according to Samsung Bioepis.
Samsung Bioepis` headquarters in Songdo, Incheon (Samsung Bioepis)
With the new partnership, Yuhan said it is officially stepping into Korea’s TNF-alpha inhibitor drug market that generates roughly 150 billion won ($132 million) in annual revenue.
Samsung Bioepis is the drug research and development unit of the Samsung Group, focusing on the development of biosimilars, which refer to cheaper, near-replicas of live cell biologic drugs whose patents have expired.
Seoul-based Yuhan Corp. was Korea’s top pharmaceutical company by revenue size in 2016. It markets a variety of drugs owned by global pharma firms including Boehringer Ingelheim’s hypertension drug Twinstar as well as Gilead Sciences’ Viread, a treatment for chronic hepatitis B.
By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)