Daewon Pharmaceutical said that it has launched Terrosa (Original: Forsteo), an osteoporosis biosimilar developed by Richter-Helm Biotec, in Korea.

The biosimilar is a parathyroid hormone (PTH) gene recombination drug that treats osteoporosis in postmenopausal women and men and women at high risk of fractures. It promotes the action of osteoblasts in the bone, progresses bone formation, and shows excellent effects in the treatment of osteoporotic fractures or in reducing the risk of fractures.

The drug has also proved to increase bone density in the spine, femur, and hip joint in clinical trials conducted in Europe and Japan.

As the treatment is also a bone formation accelerator and not a bone resorption inhibitor, it has an excellent effect of increasing bone mass compared to existing bone resorption inhibitors.

Such benefits have allowed the treatment to acquire four-year post-market surveillance (PMS) period as it received listing as an equivalent biologic treatment.

“The drug is the first biosimilar of teriparatide component in Korea and the first biopharmaceutical product marketed by Daewon,” a company official said. “The treatment has not only proved its effectiveness and safety but also has excellent price competitiveness, which will likely reduce the burden on patients.”

According to the company, the local osteoporosis treatment market has 1 million patients and is worth about 200 billion won ($162.5 million). The injection market for osteoporosis treatment is also estimated at 70 billion won.