Celltrion Pharmaceutical said it would exclusively market two diabetes treatment lineups – Nesina and Actos – it took over from Takeda Pharmaceutical. Jeil Pharmaceutical has marketed the two treatments.

Celltrion has decided to end the joint sales contract at the end of this month and start direct sales from July 1, the company said. Celltrion has selected Korea Medix, a distributor, as its wholesalers and contract sales organization, which will market Nesina Tab., Nesina Act Tab., Nesina Met Tab., Actos Tab., Actos met Tab.

Based on the outpatient prescription data of UBIST, a drug market research company, Nesina, Nesina Act, and Nesinamet recorded 32.1 billion won ($25.4 million) in prescriptions last year. In the first quarter of this year, prescriptions amounted to 7.8 billion won, down 4.8 percent from the same period last year, according to the data.

Actos and Actosmet tablets recorded 25.6 billion won prescriptions last year, and 5.9 billion won in the first quarter, down 7.1 percent from last year.

“The company decided to market the two treatments directly as the co-promotion contract with Jeil has ended,” a company official said. “We made the decision, considering market conditions and sales strategies.”

The two drugs are part of the 18 treatments that Celltrion acquired from Takeda Pharmaceutical in the Asia-Pacific region for 332 billion won in June 2020.

Celltrion had secured business rights related to the products ranging from patents to trademarks and sales rights in nine markets, including Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.

Other products acquired by Celltrion include Edarbi (hypertension treatment), Whituben (cold medicine), and Albothyl (stomatitis treatment).