Indian drugmakers make progress with candidate biosimilars

Generics and biosimilars Initiative

Building trust in cost-effective treatments

Sign up
eng / esp

Indian drugmakers make progress with candidate biosimilars

Biosimilars/News | Posted 05/06/2015 0 Post your comment

India-based biologicals specialist Biocon announced on 7 May 2015 that it had made clinical progress in its partnered programmes with US generics maker Mylan.

The Biocon/Mylan partnership now has global phase III clinical trials ongoing for candidate biosimilars of adalimumab, bevacizumab, pegfilgrastim and trastuzumab.

Two global clinical trials for their candidate biosimilar insulin glargine initiated in 2014, have also made significant progress. The patient recruitment for the Type-1 diabetes study has been completed ahead of schedule, while the recruitment for the Type-2 diabetes study is expected to be completed by July 2015.

Meanwhile, rival Indian drugmaker Intas Pharmaceuticals (Intas) launched its ‘similar biologic’ of etanercept (Intacept) in India in March 2015. The company says this is the 'first biosimilar' of Amgen’s Enbrel (etanercept).

Etanercept is indicated for rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and plaque psoriasis, all debilitating autoimmune diseases.

Intas expects, through the introduction of Intacept, to be able to reduce the cost of treatment for patients to about half that of the imported Enbrel.

Editor’s comment
It should be noted that ‘similar biologics’ approved in India might not have been authorized following as strict a regulatory process as is required for approval of biosimilars in the European Union. The EMA (European Medicines Agency) regulatory requirements ensure the same high standards of quality, safety and efficacy for biosimilars as for originator biologicals, and also include a rigorous comparability exercise with the reference product.

Permission granted to reproduce for personal and non-commercial use only. All other reproduction, copy or reprinting of all or part of any ‘Content’ found on this website is strictly prohibited without the prior consent of the publisher. Contact the publisher to obtain permission before redistributing.

Source: Biocon, Intas