Taiwan’s TTY Biopharm Pushes for Clinical Trials of its Complex Cancer Generic Drugs in Europe

Image: Lin Chuan, Chairman of TTY Biopharm Co. Ltd. Photo/ TTY Biopharm

On February 5th, Taiwan’s TTY Biopharm Co. Ltd. announced a new collaboration with a German pharmaceutical company to advance its liposome complex generic drugs Pegylipo in Europe.

Cancer Targeting Complex Generic Drug

A complex generic drug is a medicine that possesses complex ingredients, formulation, or delivery mechanism and demonstrates a similar effect to the original brand. Pegylipo, which is in TTY Biopharm’s cancer therapy pipeline, is a generic drug of Doxil to treat ovarian cancer, breast cancer, Kaposi’s sarcoma, and multiple myeloma.

Trials Expected to Begin in Mid-2021

TTY Biopharm plans to begin Pegylipo’s clinical trial in Europe in mid-2021 and will receive milestone payments according to the progress of development.

The company decided to focus on the European market since no generic drug of this kind has been approved in the EU since 2010, when the patent license of the original drug expired. Targeting an annual profit of 200 to 300 million dollars, TTY Biopharm is determined to conduct its first overseas clinical trial in Europe with medicines provided by factories in Zhongli District, Taoyuan, Taiwan.

Focus On Local Medical Needs

TTY Biopharm is a strong player in R&D and manufacturing generic drugs, especially in the field of liposomes. It has invested billions in R&D in the past 20 years and focused largely on Taiwan’s medical needs. For example, one of its top-selling anticancer generic drugs, Ufur Cap, scored approval in Taiwan even before the patent expiration of the original drug in Japan due to the small market size, which makes it less tempting to invest.

Future Goal: Complex Generic Drugs

Complex generic drugs have an immense added value as they provide more options to ill patients and are difficult for competitors to replicate, which gives the company a decisive advantage in the market. Chairman of TTY Biopharm Lin Chuan pointed out that the company has been working on nanotechnology for breakthroughs in drug delivery and will focus on innovation of oncotherapy, infectious disease, and healthcare, especially complex generic drugs.

Related Article: Taiwan’s TTY Biopharm Company Signs COVID-19 Vaccine Deal with BioNTech for 30 Million Doses

References

1. http://ch.tty.com.tw/ec99/rwd1181/news.asp?newsno=141

Author

Tyler Chen

"Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died."- Erma Bombeck