South Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion’s Truxima, the first biosimilar of Roche’s blockbuster cancer drug Rituxan (rituximab), has a market share close to 50 percent in major European countries, the company said Monday.

According to Celltrion Healthcare, which is in charge of Celltrion’s overseas business, the combined market share of Truxima in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain reached 46 percent as of the second quarter this year.

The five countries account for some 70 percent of the European rituximab market, the company said.

Truxima’s share is greater than its biosimilar rival Sandoz’ Rixathon and Roche’s original Rituxan, which controlled 36 percent and 17 percent of the market respectively.

When other European countries are also included, Truxima’s market share reached 40.2 percent, Celltrion said.

“Truxima’s market share in European countries first surpassed that of Roche in the fourth quarter of 2019,” an official from the company said. “Truxima is also on the rise in the US.”

Celltrion’s rituximab biosimilar first received the European Medicines Agency’s approval in February in 2017 and began sales two months later.

In the US, the drug received the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval in November, 2018.

Truxima is an anticancer biosimilar used to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.