[THE INVESTOR] Total accumulated exports of Celltrion’s Remsima, a biosimilar version of Johnson & Johnson’s Remicade, have exceeded 1 trillion won (US$890 million), the South Korean drug maker’s overseas marketing affiliate Celltrion Healthcare said on Oct. 19.

It took four years for Celltrion to reach the figure since the pharmaceutical firm shipped the first batch of its rheumatoid arthritis treatment drug Remsima in 2012.

“The exports of Remsima are expected to rise at a faster clip if the drug hits the US pharmacy shelves in November,” an official at the firm said. 

Starting with only 800 billion won worth of exports in 2012, the figure surged to 494.4 billion won in 2015, according to the company.

So far, Remsima has been sold in mainly European countries including Hungary and Croatia as well as Japan.

The cheaper copycat version will compete with original drug Remicade from November in the US market as it received the greenlight for sale from the Food and Drug Administration in April.

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