Celltrion Healthcare lands biosimilar deal in Brazil for 2nd straight year

South Korea's Celltrion Healthcare Co. on Tuesday said that for the second straight year, it landed an order for infliximab, an antibody used to treat autoimmune disease, in Brazil, the largest pharmaceutical market in Latin America.

The company will supply in the first half of the year 342,000 vials of Remsima, a biosimilar of infliximab used to treat autoimmune ailments like rheumatoid arthritis, exclusively to the Brazilian federal government.

Celltrion Healthcare has focused on the core market of Brazil to bolster its presence in Latin America. Through an aggressive bidding strategy, the company has won bids for not only for Remsima but also other products such as Truxima, whose active ingredient is rituximab, and Herzuma, which uses trastuzumab.

Celltrion Healthcare has seen good performance in other Latin American countries, with Remsima's market shares in Colombia, Chile and Peru all exceeding 80%. The company's anti-cancer antibody biosimilars in Costa Rica and Ecuador command a market share of over 95%. 

Write to Min-Su Han at hms@hankyung.com