Celltrion obtained permission from Health Canada to sell Avastin (ingredient: bevacizumab) biosimilar Vegzelma (CT-P16) on Tuesday.

Celltrion obtained permission from Health Canada to sell Avastin (ingredient: bevacizumab) biosimilar Vegzelma (CT-P16) on Tuesday.
Celltrion obtained permission from Health Canada to sell Avastin (ingredient: bevacizumab) biosimilar Vegzelma (CT-P16) on Tuesday.

Celltrion has obtained permission to sell Vegzelma's full label approved for Avastin in Canada, including indications for metastatic colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, epithelial ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer, primary peritoneal cancer, and glioblastoma.

Earlier in September, it obtained a sales license from the FDA and received additional permission from the Canadian Ministry of Health to enter the North American market in earnest.

According to IQVIA, a global pharmaceutical market research firm, the global bevacizumab market was $6.164 billion (about 8.132 trillion won) in 2021, of which the North American market, including the U.S. and Canada, was $2.775 billion, accounting for 44.3 percent of the global market.

Celltrion has obtained sales licenses for Vegzelma in a total of 35 countries, including Korea, Europe, the U.K., and Japan.

Additionally, Canada is actively creating an environment to encourage biosimilar prescriptions, which started in 2019 in British Columbia, a state with patients needing a new bevacizumab prescription. Furthermore, Ontario is the eighth among 13 Canadian states to announce this biosimilar policy which is expected to continue expanding the biosimilar market.

"We hope that Vegzelma, the third anti-cancer antibody biosimilar after Truxima and Herzuma, will settle quickly in the Canadian market," a Celltrion official said. "We will do our best to supply high-quality biopharmaceuticals at reasonable prices to provide various treatment options to patients at home and abroad."

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