Celltrion Healthcare recently signed a contract to supply its anticancer biosimilars -- Herzuma (ingredient: trastuzumab) and Truxima (ingredient: rituximab) -- to Brazil, the largest biopharmaceutical market in Latin America.

Under the contract, Celltrion Healthcare will deliver Herzuma to Brazil’s public market, which accounts for 40 percent of the Latin American country’s trastuzumab market, over the next year.

Brazil is a key country that accounts for more than half of Latin America's biopharmaceutical market. The Brazilian government has recently decided to import biosimilars to ease the financial burden caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Celltrion Healthcare said it has been paying attention and responded to the Brazilian government's moves by preparing customized strategies to meet the latter’s needs.

The company won the order in open bidding held by Brazil’s federal government to provide trastuzumab. The company expects it to expand its share of the Truxima market in Brazil after winning another contract in Sao Paulo, the largest of the nation's provincial bids.

"We are cementing a leading position as a biosimilar developer by winning orders and expanding drug prescriptions in the Latin American and Asian markets following the success in Europe and the U.S.," a Celltrion official said. "We will do our best to lead the global biopharmaceutical market by launching Remsima SC in more European countries and expanding the global sales of the three major products."