Amgen is making a huge bet on biosimilars and helping to define the market.
The company announced that it is targeting 6 biotech blockbusters and will start selling them as biosimilars in 2017. The initial targets: Avastin, Herceptin, Rituxan, Erbitux, Humira and Remicade. That’s over $40 billion in product. Even a small savings, like 15% to 20%, would result in a huge change in premiums.
It is still unclear what hurdles will need to be cleared from the FDA and/or other regulatory bodies, but a few other things have become very clear:
It will be curious to see which company makes the next announcement and how aggressive it will be.
Neil Minkoff, MD, is medical director of MediMedia Managed Markets and also an independent health care consultant.