Award: Samsung Bioepis Is Recognized for Advancing Biosimilars

Samsung Bioepis has won the Biosimilar Initiative of the Year award from the publisher Informa and health care analytics company IQVIA. The award is given in recognition of exceptional leadership in expanding access to biosimilars.

In late 2019, Samsung Bioepis, based in Incheon, Republic of Korea, won World Health Organization (WHO) prequalification for its trastuzumab biosimilar Ontruzant. The WHO designation helps to build worldwide acceptance of the agent and expands access to populations in need of lower-cost medicine. Also in 2019, Samsung Bioepis expanded its biosimilar marketing activities in Asia and Latin America.

In August 2020 the company expanded into the Brazilian biosimilars market, considered one of the fastest growing biosimilars markets among emerging nations.

In the United States, the company launched Ontruzant in April 2020 and has 2 biosimilars approved but not yet marketed: Eticovo (etanercept) and Hadlima (adalimumab). Originator product exclusivity rights are keeping these from market. Samsung Bioepis has 5 drug products approved and marketed in Europe in immunology and oncology.

The Biosimilar Initiative award is given to a company with a biosimilar marketed or approved or under development, actively marketing biosimilars, and working to increase biosimilar use and distribution.

“This award is a testament of the tremendous work that we’ve put toward realizing our vision and commitment to become a globally recognized biopharmaceutical company delivering high quality medicines to the people who need them the most,” said Christopher Hansung Ko, president and CEO of Samsung Bioepis.

Informa, based in London, England, and IQVIA, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, sponsor the Global Generics & Biosimilars Awards each year, and this recognition of Samsung Bioepis was part of that. Informa is a publishing company and IQVIA is a data analytics consultant.