The Sept. 4, 2015, at-risk launch of Sandoz Inc.’s Zarxio as the first biosimilar to hit the U.S. market came several months after the FDA had approved the filgrastim biosimilar due to a court battle over the requirements of the 2010 Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act, which laid out the rules of the road for the new class of follow-on drugs. Ten years later, biosimilar developers are still struggling with some of those rules that were drafted by Congress in an effort to balance competition with innovation in the biologics space. Insulin biosimilars may be the hardest hit.

It’s been a decade since Sandoz Inc. launched Zarxio, referencing Amgen Inc.’s Neupogen (filgrastim), as the first biosimilar in the U.S. Zarxio was expected to be the beginning of a biosimilar boom that would deliver big savings by finally providing direct competition for costly biologics. Neither the pipeline nor the uptake of biosimilars has lived up to expectations, as only 6% of the 313 biologics approved by the FDA’s CDER have been targeted by biosimilars and fewer than 5% are actually competing with the follow-ons.

Two South Korean conglomerates – Samyang Holdings Corp. and Samsung Biologics Co. Ltd. – listed their newly spun-off biopharmaceutical units on Korea Exchange’s (KRX) main trading board Nov. 24.

Shanghai Henlius Biotech Inc. and Organon & Co. announced Nov. 17 that the U.S. FDA cleared Poherdy (pertuzumab-dpzb) as the first and only interchangeable biosimilar to Perjeta (pertuzumab, Genentech Inc./Roche Holding AG).

The Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization on Oct. 30 welcomed the bilateral trade deal between the U.S. and South Korea announced during U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit alongside the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Gyeongju, South Korea.

The Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization on Oct. 30 welcomed the bilateral trade deal between the U.S. and South Korea announced during U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit alongside the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Gyeongju, South Korea.

Ten years after the first biosimilar launched on the U.S. market, the FDA is taking steps to make biosimilar development and pharmacy substitution more like that of generics, reducing the cost of the drugs in the process. “We want to see more biosimilars. We want to see more competition,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said at an Oct. 29 media briefing in which he announced new guidance to streamline biosimilar development, cut through the red tape and shorten the timeline.