December 01, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Daewoong Pharmaceutical said on March 5 that it has launched Samfenet, a copy version of breast cancer therapy Herceptin developed by Samsung Bioepis, in Korea.

The release comes about four months after Samsung Bioepis received marketing approval for the biosimilar from Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in November. 

Samfenet is priced at 29.5 percent below the listed price for Herceptin, which was the world’s eighth best-selling drug with global sales of US$6.7 billion in 2016. By adding Samfenet, Daewoong seeks to strengthen its oncology product portfolio consisted of chronic myeloid leukemia treatment Supect and prostate cancer med Luphere Depot.

Samfenet is not the first Herceptin biosimilar to hit the Korean market. In September last year, Celltrion launched its version Herzuma with a similar price range of Samfenet.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)