Posted by Michael Wonder on 18 Sep 2017
Biosimilar cancer drug threat closing in for Roche
19 September 2017 - The long-heralded threat of cut-price competition to its top-selling biological cancer medicines is finally becoming a reality for Roche, the world’s biggest maker of oncology treatments.
Last Friday’s green light for a copy of its breast cancer drug Herceptin heralds the arrival of the second so-called cancer biosimilar in Europe this year, following the launch six months ago of copies of MabThera/Rituxan for blood cancers.
Across the Atlantic, U.S. regulators have approved a biosimilar version of Avastin for a range of cancers, although outstanding patents mean it is likely to be a couple of years before cheap copies of this product hit the market.
