India offers better opportunity for biosimilar drugs: Cadila Healthcare founder Pankaj Patel
India may offer a better market to drug
makers chasing the $1-billion global biosimilar industry in more regulated
markets, the founder of Cadila Healthcare Pankaj Patel has said.
Biosimilars are follow-on versions of
biologic drugs and far more complex and more difficult to copy than generic
drugs because of the structure of the molecule. "India offers a better
opportunity for launbiosimilar drugs than other markets. In regulated markets
we face challenge of proving biosimilarity, requirement of various quality
standards and the plethora of patents that need to be looked at. Every
regulator thinks biosimilars are different," Patel said at the 13th
edition of BioAsia in Hyderabad.
In the United States alone it is estimated
biologic drugs worth $20 billion will go off patent in the coming years. Most
of the drugs are widely prescribed for growing ailment of diseases like cancer.
Patel said that most companies want to make the same biosimilar drugs, ignoring
a whole range of other drugs.
"Biologic drugs are too expensive. We
have to see how we can bring down the prices of these drugs. Also, our
biosimilar industry is too nascent compared to pharma, so this will take
time," he said.
The comments come at a time when a few Indian
drug makers such as Dr Reddy's and Biocon are seeking to boost their biosimilar
business in overseas markets. Dr Reddy's in particular has been pumping up its
pipeline by investing nearly $40 million in biosimilar research and
development.
It has tied up with a number of global
companies such as Germany's Merck Serano to bring in a drug in regulated
markets. In India the company sells nearly nine biosimilar drugs.
In India, too, generic drugs makers have been
sporadic in their biosimilar launches. Partly because the price differentiation
between the original drug and the biosimilars is not too much, these drugs have
not managed to dent the market as a generic drug launch would do.
"The quantum of regulatory threshold
required to launch a biosimilar drug might negate the size of the
opportunity," said Utkarsh Palnitkar, head-life sciences at consultancy
firm KPMG. "So you might require the same amount of threshold for a
biosimilar that is required of an innovative drug, and that takes cost and
time," he said.
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/pharmaceuticals/india-offers-better-opportunity-for-biosimilar-drugs-cadila-healthcare-founder-pankaj-patel/articleshow/50939332.cms
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