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Argenx Enters Japan With Smooth Approval – How Was It Possible?

Strategy Behind Unusual Move

 
• By Lisa Takagi

Belgian bioventure Argenx has made an unusually smooth commercial entry to Japan with Vyvgart almost as fast as the launch of the myasthenia gravis drug in the US. Its founder admits it was a “bold move” for a European pharma company and revealed how the unexpected entrance was made possible.

gMG drug VYvgart entered Japan market in May 2022
Vyvgart approved in Japan for both ACHR antibody positive and negative patients • Source: Shutterstock

Belgian bioventure argenx N.V. has made a rapid and smooth entry into the sometimes challenging Japanese market with its generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) drug Vyvgart (efgartigimod alfa).

Although moving into the country wasn’t in the firm’s original business plans, the local approval of the anti-FcRn antibody fragment went without a hitch and came almost as quickly as...

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