Chong Kun Dang cuts price of its Lucen BS by half

Chong Kun Dang’s Lucentis biosimilar

Insurance price ceiling for the generic drug will be reduced to KRW 150,000 from KRW 300,000 in February

Price set at 25% of the original drug’s price...Widen the price gap with Samsung Bioepis

Chong Kun Dang is offering a bargain price for its biosimilar.

 

The company has decided to cut the price of its 'Lucen BS', a biosimilar of the macular degeneration treatment Lucentis (ranibizumab, Novartis), by half from next month.

 

As a result, the price difference between it and the original product, as well as it and Samsung Bioepis’s biosimilar, has widened significantly.

 

According to the industry on the 23rd, Chong Kun Dang will voluntarily reduce the insurance price ceiling of its biosimilar 'Lucentis' by half from next month.

 

Accordingly, the price of Lucen BS Inj 10mg/ml and Lucen BS Prefilled Syringe will be reduced from KRW 300,000 to KRW 150,000.

 

Lucen BS was launched in January last year and is the first biosimilar of the macular degeneration treatment Lucentis in Korea.

 

At the time, Lucen BS and Samsung Bioepis ‘Amelivu’ were listed simultaneously.

 

The two companies set the price of their generic drugs at a much lower price than the original, at a price lower than the calculated amount.

 

At the time of its reimbursement listing in January, the price of Lucen BS was KRW 300,000, which was 37% of the original drug’s price at the time.

 

The price difference between it and the original drug as well as Samsung Bioepis’s product has become even greater now that Lucen BS’s price has been cut by half.

 

Currently, the original Lucentis costs about KRW 580,000 per vial, while the biosimilar Amelivu costs KRW 350,000 per vial.

 

With Lucen BS’s price set at KRW 150,000, patients will be able to access the biosimilar at 25% of the original price.

 

Lucen BS’s price difference with another biosimilar, Amelivu, is KRW 200,000, making Lucen BS even more competitive in the market.

 

Chong Kun Dang conducted a Phase III trial for Lucen BS from September 2018 to March 2021 at 25 hospitals, including Seoul National University Hospital on a total of 312 patients with neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration.

 

Analysis of the primary efficacy endpoint, which compared the best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) in 3 months after drug administration, showed that the proportion of patients with vision loss of less than 15 letters was 97.95% (143/146 patients) in the Lucen BS arm and 98.62% (143/145 patients) in the original drug arm, meeting the range of equivalence between the two drugs.