Truxima now available in 18 European countries

An affiliate of Korean biopharmaceutical firm Celltrion said Monday that the biosimilar drug Truxima is now available in 18 European countries.

Celltrion Healthcare, which handles Celltrion’s overseas business, said Truxima, a reference to Roche’s MabThera, also known as Rituxan, is now available in the European countries after its launch in the market one year ago.

After Truxima began selling in Britain following approval from a European regulator, the drug expanded to the 18 nations, including Germany, France and Italy.

“Truxima logged market shares of 58 percent and 43 percent in the Netherlands and Britain, respectively, on the back of plentiful clinical data,” said a company source who declined to be named.

In February 2017, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) accepted Celltrion’s application to sell the antibody biosimilar, which is used in the treatment of a number of diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of leukemia.

Yonhap