Celltrion Successfully Wins Bids for Remsima and Others in France's Largest Tender Market

Celltrion recently announced on the 20th that it succeeded in winning bids for the autoimmune disease treatment Remsima and the anticancer drugs Herzuma and Vegzelma in the UniHA tender, a major university hospital consortium purchasing organization and the largest pharmaceutical procurement institution in France.

Celltrion's autoimmune disease treatment 'Remsima'
Photo by Celltrion

UniHA is a large institution with influence across the French healthcare industry, holding market shares of 30% for infliximab (Remsima), 27% for bevacizumab (Vegzelma), and 13% for trastuzumab (Herzuma) by ingredient. Through this award, Celltrion plans to exclusively supply these three products to UniHA for three years from this month until 2027.

Additionally, Celltrion succeeded in winning bids for Herzuma and Vegzelma in the Brittany regional tender, one of the public hospital unions in France, and plans to supply these products for four years from this month until 2028.

Considering the French pharmaceutical supply system, which is centered on hospital tenders, Celltrion has focused on expanding friendly networks with tender stakeholders. Based on this, the company has closely identified demand during the tender process and continuously promoted competitiveness in various areas such as product strengths, ESG (environmental, social, and governance) management achievements, and pharmaceutical supply stability, thereby enhancing trust in the company and product brands. Since switching to direct sales of Remsima in Europe in 2020, Celltrion has steadily pursued market expansion opportunities through more strategic pricing policies.

Based on these efforts, Celltrion is showing strong growth in France, one of the five major European countries (EU5). According to the pharmaceutical market research firm IQVIA, Remsima dominated competing products with a 50% market share as of the fourth quarter of last year.

Follow-up products are also steadily establishing themselves in the French market. RemsimaSC, the world’s only subcutaneous (SC) formulation of infliximab, recorded a 26% market share in the fourth quarter of last year based on its therapeutic efficacy and convenience. In particular, combined with Remsima, the market share reaches 76%, solidifying its position as the number one prescribed treatment in the French infliximab market. In addition, Celltrion plans to continue its success with follow-up pipelines such as Omriqlo, a biosimilar of Xolair approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) last month, and CT-P43, a biosimilar of Stelara for which approval has been applied.

Kim Dong-gyu, head of Celltrion’s France branch, said, “As a result of forming friendly networks and strengthening customized sales activities targeting major French tender markets, we are steadily expanding bid-winning achievements across all products Celltrion possesses, including autoimmune disease treatments and anticancer drugs. We will participate more aggressively in tenders scheduled for this year and strive to continue overwhelming success with follow-up products and pipelines so that more patients can receive Celltrion treatments.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.