[Exclusive] Daewoong Pharmaceutical gains exclusive right to sell LG Chem's 'Humira biosimilar' in Korea

By Kwang-Ho Lee

Daewoong Pharmaceutical was found to have signed a contract for the exclusive right to sell LG Chem’s Humira biosimilar in Korea.

According to the two companies, Thursday, Daewoong Pharmaceutical signed the contract on June 23 for the joint development of LG Chem’s Humira (adalimumab) biosimilar and the exclusive right to sell the product here.

When LG Chem got an approval for the sale of its Humira biosimilar in Japan in March last year, the company also signed a contract with Mochida Pharmaceutical for the Japanese drugmaker to co-develop the product and gain the exclusive right to sell it in Japan.

In other words, LG Chem transferred the exclusive right to sell its product to other drugmakers in Korea and in Japan, on condition of the joint development.

According to LG Chem, additional clinical trials are unnecessary for the joint development in Korea.

This is because the company already secured data on clinical trials performed in Koreans, when conducting clinical trials to get an approval for the sale of the product in Japan. In order to satisfy some requests from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, however, the two companies will conduct additional analyses of the existing clinical trial data.

Although LG Chem has not disclosed the exact date to release the product in Korea, the company explained that the product will be released earlier than the other products subject to clinical trials.

Once the product is released, LG Chem will be in charge of production, while Daewoong Pharmaceutical will purchase the products to sell them on the market.

== LG Chem relies on Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s sales network in digestive medicine market ==

Given that LG Chem has already distributed various medicines in the Korean market, questions have been raised on its decision to hand over the exclusive right to sell its product to Daewoong Pharmaceutical.

“Adalimumab is mainly used to treat arthritis and digestive disorders,” an LG Chem official said. “In particular, Daewoong Pharmaceutical has an extensive sales network in the market for medicines for digestive disorders, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, so we decided to sign a partnership with the company.”

Daewoong Pharmaceutical has maintained a strong sales network in the digestive medicine market. Before the ban on the sale of ranitidine, the company had annually posted 60 billion won ($45 million) in revenue with the sale of “Albis,” an incrementally modified antiulcer drug.

With the beginning of the sale of “Fexuclue Tablet,” a new drug for gastroesophageal reflux disease, it has focused more on selling digestive medicines.

LG Chem’s decision has been therefore interpreted as an attempt to overcome its weakness in the digestive medicine market by relying on Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s sales network.

At this moment, three types of adalimumab-based medicines are distributed in Korea -- the original Humira developed by AbbVie and two types of biosimilars developed by Celltrion and Samsung Bioepis.

Last year, Humira generated $20.7 billion in global revenue, becoming the world’s best-selling drug.

*This was translated from the article originally written in Korean. For more accurate information, please refer to the original version by using the link below. In case of discrepancies between the two versions, the Korean version shall prevail.
https://biz.sbs.co.kr/article/20000076808

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