Development of Korea's First Domestic Insulin Pen Injector... Celltrion Selected for National Project

Celltrion Plant 2

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] The public and private sectors have joined forces to domestically produce insulin pen-type injectors, which have so far relied on imports.

Celltrion recently announced on the 3rd that it was finally selected for a national project announced by the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology as part of the core technology development project for the bio-industry. Specializing in biosimilar biopharmaceuticals, the company will be responsible for developing and conducting clinical trials of insulin formulation biosimilars. Medical device specialist company Punglim Pharmatech, also selected for this project, will develop an automatic prefilled pen-type injector that can be filled with biopharmaceuticals developed by Celltrion. This is a 4-year project costing 4 billion KRW, with 3 billion KRW supported by the government.

The company stated, "We received high marks because the first domestically produced product combining quality and cost competitiveness in the global insulin pen-type injector market, which has been monopolized by multinational pharmaceutical companies, can reduce dependence on imports for this formulation."

The two companies plan to develop a pen-type injector capable of delivering up to 80 units at once using an automatic injection method that considers patient convenience. They expect commercialization by 2025. If launched smoothly, it will be the first domestically produced insulin pen-type injector. According to the industry, the global insulin market is dominated 96% by the original three companies: Sanofi, Lilly, and Novo Nordisk. Biosimilars are also only sold by products mutually agreed upon by Sanofi and Lilly. It is estimated that there are approximately 463 million diabetes patients worldwide, about half of whom use insulin pen-type injectors.

The company added, "Because it is expensive, inconvenient, and needle management is difficult, 77% of diabetic patients stop self-injection therapy," and predicted, "If domestically produced pen-type injectors that lower costs and enhance patient convenience are supplied, patient accessibility will improve."