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March 28, 2024

Samsung Bioepis to erase trace of MSD to boost biosimilar sales

PUBLISHED : March 16, 2018 - 16:10

UPDATED : March 16, 2018 - 21:07

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[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Bioepis is trying to give its biosimilars a fresh start by dropping the product names used by its former partner MSD, which returned its marketing rights following stagnant sales, according to industry sources on March 16.

Brenzys and Renflexis -- copy versions of Amgen’s blockbuster drug Enbrel and Johnson & Johnson’s Remicade -- will get new names once a state-run watchdog gives the green light in a month.




The two biosimilar drugs of Samsung had been sold by MSD Korea but Yuhan now has exclusive marketing rights after the US drug maker terminated its contract in October last year. MSD remains Samsung’s partner in the US and Europe.

“We are considering a brand name alternation due to the change in sales partnership and are putting efforts for biosimilar market expansion of the auto-immune disease treatments in Korea,” a Samsung Bioepis official told The Investor.

Samsung Bioepis’ version of Remicade will be sold under the new name of Remaloce while the Enbrel biosmilar will be called Etoloce.

“As the brand names -- Brenzys and Renflexis – were chosen after discussions with MSD, Samsung Bioepis and the new partner Yuhan are trying to erase the trace as MSD is no longer in charge of sales of the meds here,” a source said.

The rebranding comes after lackluster sales figures of the biosimilars fanned concerns that the company failed to entice stable number of patients to switch to its cheaper copycats from original drugs.

While Remicade had prescription sales of 37.7 billion won (US$35.44 million) in Korea last year, Samsung’s Renflexis generated 5.9 million won and the rival product Celltrion’s Remsima posted 17.4 billion won, according to IMS Health Data.

“The Korean market of the original drug Remicade is small and Celltrion took an advantageous position before Samsung with its first Remicade biosimilar in the market,” the source said.

Both the biosimilar makers are headquartered in Korea, but their business goes beyond Asia to focus on the US and European markets that represent a much larger and lucrative share of the pie.

Samsung Bioepis is also pinning hopes on Samfenet, its knockoff of Roche’s breast cancer treatment Herceptin, which hit the Korean market this month, as the original drug has much more market value than Remicade and Enbrel here.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)  

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