SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean drugmaker Samsung Bioepis Co. said Friday that global sales of its five biosimilar products jumped 30 percent on-year during the first half of the year.
Combined sales of the five biosimilars — Infliximab, Etanercept, Adalimumab, Trastuzumab, Bevacizumab — came to US$166 million in the January-June period, compared with $128 million from the same period a year earlier, the company said.
Sales of Infliximab accounted for the most with $81 million during the cited period, compared with $59 million a year earlier, the company said.
Infliximab, also known as Renflexis, is a biosimilar of Janssen Biotech, Inc.’s blockbuster immunology medicine Remicade.
Global sales of Trastuzumab came to $45 million during the first half of the year. The breast cancer biosimilar Trastuzuma, also known as Ontruzant, references Switzerland-based Roche Holding’s Herceptin.
The company cited a first-half earnings report of its global partner Oganon International.
Samsung Bioepis is a joint venture between Samsung Biologics — a biopharmaceutical unit of South Korea’s top conglomerate Samsung Group — and Biogen.
(Yonhap)