Celltrion is a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Incheon,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

. Celltrion Healthcare conducts worldwide marketing, sales, and distribution of biological medicines developed by Celltrion. Celltrion's founder, Jung Jin Seo, is the richest person in South Korea.

History

In 1999, Nexol, Inc. (now Celltrion Healthcare Co., Ltd.) was founded as a global business management consulting firm. In 2002, Celltrion, Inc. was founded as a biopharmaceutical company. In 2008, Nexol and Celltrion established a global distribution agreement. In 2009, distribution channels were established in America, Oceania, Europe (

Hospira Hospira was an American global pharmaceutical and medical device company with headquarters in Lake Forest, Illinois. It had approximately 19,000 employees. Before its acquisition by Pfizer, Hospira was the world's largest producer of generic inj ...

) and Nexol, Inc. renamed as Celltrion Healthcare Co., Ltd. In 2010, distribution channels were established in Japan (

Nippon Kayaku (Japan Pharmaceuticals) is a Japanese company that was founded in 1916 as the first industrial explosives manufacturer in Japan under the company name Nippon Kayaku Seizo Co., Ltd.. Its main business areas are functional chemicals, pharmaceutical ...

), Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Eastern Europe, and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

(Egis). In 2013, distribution channels were added in Europe (Mundipharma, Biogaran, and Kern).

Products

The company's products are manufactured at mammalian cell culture facilities designed and built to comply with the United States

FDA The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...

’s cGMP, and the European Medicines Agency’s GMP standards.

Inline product

Remsima (

infliximab Infliximab, a chimeric monoclonal antibody, sold under the brand name Remicade among others, is a medication used to treat a number of autoimmune diseases. This includes Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spon ...

) is a

biosimilar A biosimilar (also known as follow-on biologic or subsequent entry biologic) is a biologic medical product that is almost an identical copy of an original product that is manufactured by a different company. Biosimilars are officially approved v ...

monoclonal antibody A monoclonal antibody (mAb, more rarely called moAb) is an antibody produced from a cell Lineage made by cloning a unique white blood cell. All subsequent antibodies derived this way trace back to a unique parent cell. Monoclonal antibodies ...

against

tumor necrosis factor alpha Tumor necrosis factor (TNF, cachexin, or cachectin; formerly known as tumor necrosis factor alpha or TNF-α) is an adipokine and a cytokine. TNF is a member of the TNF superfamily, which consists of various transmembrane proteins with a homolo ...

(TNF-α), approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for treatment of: #

rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects joints. It typically results in warm, swollen, and painful joints. Pain and stiffness often worsen following rest. Most commonly, the wrist and hands are invol ...

, # adult Crohn's disease, # pediatric Crohn's disease, #

ulcerative colitis Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a long-term condition that results in inflammation and ulcers of the colon and rectum. The primary symptoms of active disease are abdominal pain and diarrhea mixed with blood (hematochezia). Weight loss, fever, and ...

, # pediatric ulcerative colitis, #

ankylosing spondylitis Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a type of arthritis characterized by long-term inflammation of the joints of the spine typically where the spine joins the pelvis. Occasionally areas affected may include other joints such as the shoulders or hi ...

, #

psoriatic arthritis Psoriatic arthritis is a long-term inflammatory arthritis that occurs in people affected by the autoimmune disease psoriasis. The classic feature of psoriatic arthritis is swelling of entire fingers and toes with a sausage-like appearance. Th ...

, and #

psoriasis Psoriasis is a long-lasting, noncontagious autoimmune disease characterized by raised areas of abnormal skin. These areas are red, pink, or purple, dry, itchy, and scaly. Psoriasis varies in severity from small, localized patches to complete ...

. In 2012 Remsima was approved by the Republic of Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), previously known as Korea Food and Drug Administration and in 2013 it became the world's first

(mAb) approved by the EMA. Herzuma is a

trastuzumab Trastuzumab, sold under the brand name Herceptin among others, is a monoclonal antibody used to treat breast cancer and stomach cancer. It is specifically used for cancer that is HER2 receptor positive. It may be used by itself or together wi ...

approved by the MFDS for treatment of early and advanced (metastatic) HER2+

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a r ...

as well as advanced (metastatic) stomach cancer. Herzuma is a HER2+ breast cancer therapy designed to treat aggressive HER positive

metastatic Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, ...

and

adjuvant In pharmacology, an adjuvant is a drug or other substance, or a combination of substances, that is used to increase the efficacy or potency of certain drugs. Specifically, the term can refer to: * Adjuvant therapy in cancer management * Analgesi ...

breast cancer, as well as HER2 positive adenocarcinoma of the stomach that has spread (metastatic or advanced

gastric cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymph ...

). Truxima (previously known as CT-P10) is the first biosimilar of the reference

rituximab Rituximab, sold under the brand name Rituxan among others, is a monoclonal antibody medication used to treat certain autoimmune diseases and types of cancer. It is used for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (in non-geriatric pa ...

that targets CD20 molecule primarily found on the surface of B-cells. Its target indications are rheumatoid arthritis,

non-Hodgkin lymphoma Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), also known as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, is a group of blood cancers that includes all types of lymphomas except Hodgkin lymphomas. Symptoms include enlarged lymph nodes, fever, night sweats, weight loss, and tirednes ...

and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. It was approved by the EMA in February 2017.

References

{{KRX 100 companies Pharmaceutical companies of South Korea Life sciences industry Companies based in Incheon Biotechnology companies established in 1999 Biotechnology companies of South Korea South Korean brands South Korean companies established in 1999 Companies listed on the Korea Exchange