Celltrion Healthcare Co., marketing and distribution affiliate of South Korea’s leading bio drug maker Celltrion Inc., has launched infliximab biosimilar Remsima in Africa starting with Libya and Tunisia.

Celltrion Healthcare said on Monday that it will exclusively distribute autoimmune disease biosimilar Remsima in Libya and Tunisia through its local distribution partner Hikma Pharmaceutical Plc. It successfully won national bids to supply the infliximab biosimilar in the two countries last year.

The medical system in Libya and Tunisia allows a single medicine chosen through a national auction to be supplied to all hospitals in each country, which grants Celltrion Healthcare to dominate the infliximab medicine market in the two countries for a while.

Celltrion Healthcare also plans to expand sales networks of Remsima and other biosimilars developed by Celltrion in countries in the Middle East. The company will launch Remsima in the United Arab Emirates and Algeria later this year upon gaining distribution rights. The company is also expected to win approval to market the biosimilar in Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain this year. Celltrion Healthcare said it is currently in close consultation with its local distribution partners in those countries to expedite its sale.

The company has also applied for marketing approval of Truxima, a copycat version of Rituxan that is a treatment for a type of blood cancer called non-Hodgkin lymphoma and autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis, and Herzuma, a biosimilar of Roche’s Herception to treat breast cancer with data resubmission, in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco. Both drugs were developed by Celltrion.

An unnamed official from Celltrion Healthcare said that governments in the Middle East and local medicine industry are very open to biosimilar treatments, raising expectations for solid sales of Remsima.

Shares of Celltrion ended up 0.17 percent at 296,000 won ($266) on Monday while Celltrion Healthcare down 0.99 percent at 110,300 won.

By Shin Chan-ok and Lee Eun-joo

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