U.S. pharmaceutical giant Amgen is preparing to introduce innovative therapies to local patients at affordable costs, stressing “accessibility” as the company’s key value, the chief of Amgen Korea said last Thursday.

“Our foremost vision is to offer local patients with limited or no treatment options access to our drugs in a fitting and timely manner,” said Amgen Korea’s general manager Noh Sang-kyung during an event to mark the opening of Amgen’s Korean office in Seoul last Thursday.

Since its official establishment in November 2015, Amgen Korea has been organizing and optimizing its workforce to make way for the successful testing, legalization, marketing and sales of its drugs in the local market, Noh said.

In January, the firm joined the Korean Research-based Pharmaceutical Industry Association, under which many global pharmaceutical companies in Korea are registered as members.

Amgen Korea’s immediate goal is to successfully introduce five new drugs to local patients within this year, most of which will be cancer-fighting drugs, according to the Amgen Korea chief.

Two of them have already been launched in Korea -- Amgen’s lymphoblastic leukemia treatment Blincyto (blinatumomab) in April and Kyprolis (carfilzomib), a therapy for relapsed multiple myeloma, a type of cancer that begins in the bone marrow, in May.

Amgen’s Korean branch will also locally introduce three new Amgen drugs which were recently reclaimed from its marketing and sales partner GlaxoSmithKline, under its own name within this year, Noh said.

The three drugs taken back by Amgen from GSK include Amgen’s osteoporosis medication Prolia (denosumab), Xgeva (denosumab), an anti-fracture drug for cancer patients and colon cancer therapy Vectibix (panitumumab).

“As these (three drugs) were previously unavailable in Korea until now, we expect them to become a meaningful addition to Amgen’s product lineup in Korea,” Noh said.

As of now, Amgen Korea does not plan to reclaim its rights to other well-known drugs being sold by its licensing partners -- such as Enbrel (etanercept) sold by Pfizer Korea and Nexavar (sorafenib) sold by Bayer Korea, among others, according to Noh.

Stressing Amgen’s slogan “to serve patients,” the general manager of Amgen JAPAC (Japan and the Asia-Pacific) Penny Wan vowed to work with the Korean government and medical communities to ensure that Amgen’s treatments are available where needed.

“(We are well aware that) the value of the drugs can be only realized if they can reach the patient,” Wan said.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)