Korean bio players pursue new drug formulations for convenience, competitiveness

Celltrion Inc.’s Remsima SC [Photo provided by Celltrion]

South Korean pharmaceutical and biotech companies are pursuing strategies of changing the formulation of drugs to improve convenience for patients and to enhance their competitiveness in the global market.

According to industry sources on Wednesday, a significant number of companies, including Celltrion Inc. and GC Pharma Corp., have either already changed or are in the process of changing the formulation of their pharmaceutical products.

In the pharmaceutical market, where the majority of products, excluding orphan drugs, are generics, changing the formulation can improve convenience for patients and provide a differentiating factor for competition.

Celltrion is a prominent example of a company that has achieved significant success through formulation changes.

Celltrion’s Remsima SC, a self-injectable therapy for autoimmune diseases that transformed from an intravenous infusion form, has shown remarkable results.

The intravenous infusion required prolonged administration at a hospital, but the shift to subcutaneous injection makes it possible to administer the drug within about 10 minutes, regardless of body weight.

After changing the formulation to a subcutaneous injection, Remsima sales significantly increased. Remsima SC’s market share doubled to 16 percent in 2022 from 8 percent in 2021 in major European markets.

Celltrion is also conducting research in collaboration with Rani Therapeutics Holdings in the U.S. to convert the formulation of its biosimilar drugs for autoimmune disease treatment, CT-P17 (adalimumab), and CT-P43 (ustekinumab), into oral formulations.

Rani Therapeutics possesses a proprietary oral capsule platform technology called RaniPill, which enables the delivery of protein and antibody drugs that were previously only available in intravenous or subcutaneous injection forms.

Furthermore, some Korean companies have ventured into the development of patch-based influenza vaccines.

GC Pharma, for example, is developing a patch-based flu vaccine called MIMIX-Flu in collaboration with Vaxess Technologies in the U.S.

The product combines GC Pharma’s influenza vaccine antigen with Vaxess Technologies’ patch-based transdermal drug delivery system. The patch contains microneedles that allow for controlled drug delivery speed and time.

Curacle Co., a Korean biotech company, is developing an oral formulation for the treatment of macular degeneration, which currently requires direct injection into the eye.

Ildong Pharmaceutical Co. and Sam Chun Dang Pharm Co. are also working on the development of oral formulations as substitutes for insulin injections that require continuous administration.