Celltrion(068270) said on the 21st that its blood cancer treatment Truxima (ingredient name rituximab) ranked No. 1 in market share in the United States for four consecutive months.
According to IQVIA, Truxima recorded a 38.6% share in the U.S. rituximab market on May. It first rose to No. 1 on Feb. and stayed on top for four straight months, with its share up 2.8 percentage points from Feb.
Truxima is a biosimilar of Switzerland's Roche "Rituxan" and is the first blood cancer treatment developed by Celltrion. In the United States, it is approved and sold as a treatment for all adult indications identical to the original drug, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA).
The company said Truxima is the first Korean biosimilar to take the No. 1 market share spot in the United States.
The company projected the growth trend will continue for the time being. Early this month, Truxima became the first rituximab biosimilar to obtain "interchangeable" status, allowing substitution with the original drug, from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Celltrion expects this will expand penetration into the market of about 20% currently held by the original drug.
Other biosimilars are also expanding their share in the U.S. market. The autoimmune disease treatment Inflectra (infliximab; brand name Remsima in the U.S.) posted a 30.4% share in the same period, remaining near the top. Steqeyma (ustekinumab) recorded 13.3%, Vegzelma (bevacizumab) 10.6%, and Yuflyma (adalimumab) 8.1%.
Celltrion plans to launch Aptozma (tocilizumab) in a subcutaneous (SC) formulation and OMLYCLO (Omalizumab) in the United States in the second half. The company said it will leverage the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) network built through sales of existing autoimmune disease products to help new products gain an early foothold in the market.
Earlier, Celltrion announced that it achieved record quarterly results with preliminary consolidation-based second-quarter sales of 1.3 trillion won and operating profit of 430 billion won.
A Celltrion official said, "Building on sales performance of major products including Truxima, we will do our best to ensure that high-margin follow-up products slated for launch in the second half can quickly secure the U.S. market."