Celltrion Healthcare said that it won the bid to sell Herzuma, an anticancer antibody biosimilar, sponsored by a governorate in Iraq in the second quarter of this year. The company started marketing the drug from the third quarter of this year through Hikma, its Middle Eastern partner.

Celltrion's anticancer antibody biosimilar Herzuma

“The entry into Iraq is expected to have a positive effect on expanding our products to neighboring countries,” the company said.

The launch of Herzuma comes at a time when Celltrion is steadily expanding the market for another biosimilar Remsima, an autoimmune disorder treatment, in North Africa. The drug all but monopolizes the Tunisian infliximab market and has 80 percent share in the Moroccan market.

Remsima has also successfully won the bids from the Saudi Food and Drug Authority for three consecutive years and has recently won the bid sponsored by Jordanian military hospitals.

Based on such achievements, the company succeeded in winning the Algerian national bid held at the end of last year and has started the exclusive supply of infliximab from the third quarter of this year. Celltrion Healthcare and the Algerian government have agreed to expand the supply of Remsima by more than six times.

“Celltrion’s biosimilars are expanding into the Middle East after gaining recognition in Europe and Japan,” a company official said. “The Algerian bid is also a symbolic example of the Middle East’s favorable attitude toward Celltrion’s biosimilars.”

The company plans to do its best to promote this positive atmosphere throughout the Middle East, he added.

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