Biosimilar industry emerges as new moneymaker

By Choi Sung-jin

Since Hanmi Pharmaceutical hit a jackpot last year by exporting new technology worth 8 trillion won ($6.6 billion), drug manufacturing is emerging as a new pillar bolstering the Korean industry, sources said Wednesday.

And at the center of the pharmaceutical boom are biosimilars – medical products that are almost identical copies of original products.

Biological medicines are made from cells, proteins and genes, and have better efficacy and less ill effects than chemosynthetic drugs, but have 10 times higher costs and two times longer periods to develop than the latter. Biosimilars save such money and time.

The biological medicine market grew from $78 billion in 2006 to $179 billion in 2014 and is expected to expand to $278 billion, or 340 trillion won, by 2020, the industry sources said, adding that biosimilars will play a central role in the rapidly growing market that is almost twice as large as the semiconductor market.

On Monday, Celltrion’s share price jumped 17.64 percent to 116,700 won, buoyed by expectations that the front-runner in the biosimilar sector would soon make its debut in the U.S. market. Celltrion’s aggregate market value rose to 12.89 trillion won, encouraged by news that sales of its generic drug for arthritis, Remsima, would amount to 1 trillion won a year, to become the second Hanmi Pharmaceutical.

If Remsima wins Food and Drug Administration approval, it will be the first biosimilar antibody drug to be sold in the U.S. market. Remsima, the biosimilar of original product Remicade, already has European Medicine Agency approval and is being sold in 67 countries.

The patent periods of biological medical products with high marketability, such as anticancer drugs and rheumatoid arthritis treatments, are to expire soon, raising hopes for further growth of the domestic biosimilar sector, the sources said.

A total of 21 clinical tests are going on in Korea, including those conducted by multinational pharmaceutical companies, with 15 led by domestic makers.