Pharma Focus Asia

Eli Lilly to introduce Lantus insulin Copy in Europe After Patent Expiry

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Eli Lilly & Co. plans to start commercializing a cheaper version of Sanofi’s Lantus insulin for diabetes in Europe following the expiration of the medicine’s patent in May.

Drugmakers including Lilly are working to bring to market cheaper versions of complex biotechnology drugs, known in the industry as biosimilars. As drugmakers start negotiating with health insurers and governments, it’s unlikely the biosimilars will be sold at the same deep discounts as simpler-to-make generic pills, Richard Ascroft, Lilly’s senior director of market access for Europe, Australia and Canada, said in an interview today in London.

“We see some risk that payers will have unrealistic expectations in terms of what the price will look like for these new products,” Ascroft said. “The risk is, if they expect to see ‘X’ savings and they don’t see it, will they take other measures to achieve those savings in the biologics market?”

Sanofi last year had revenue of 6.34 billion euros ($8.43 billion) from Lantus, its best-selling product. While it lost U.S. patent protection this month, Sanofi has sued Lilly to block the biosimilar version from coming to market. Sanofi yesterday won U.S. approval for Toujeo, a successor to Lantus.

Sanofi surprised investors in October with a forecast of stalling growth at the diabetes business through 2018. The misstep contributed to Chief Executive Officer Chris Viehbacher’s ouster the same month.

 

Source : http://www.bloomberg.com/

Latest Issue
Get instant
access to our latest e-book
MFA + MMA 2024CPHI Chine || PMEC China 2024Asia Healthcare Week 2024Gibco Adherent Kidney Media PanelCPHI Korea 2024CHEMICAL INDONESIA 2024INALAB 2024 Thermo Scientific - DynaDrive and DynaSpinDigital Health Asia 2024ISPE Singapore Affiliate Conference & Exhibition 2024Rehab Expo 20242024 PDA Pharmaceutical Manufacturing & Quality Conference2024 PDA Cell and Gene Pharmaceutical Products Conference 2024 PDA Aseptic Manufacturing Excellence Conference2024 PDA Aseptic Processing of Biopharmaceuticals ConferencePharma Quality Excellence Awards 20244th Annual Pharma GMP Quality Management 20243rd World ADC Asia 2024LogiPharma Asia 2024