 "Biocon launches world's first biosimilar drug for breast cancer")
Biotechnology company Biocon on Saturday launched a new and cheaper drug to treat ‘metastatic’ breast cancer that aggressively spreads to other parts of the body. Biocon which developed the drug in association with US drugmaker Mylan received the approval for CANMab, the biosimilar version of anti-cancer drug Herceptin, last year.
The company said the drug, which would be manufactured at its biologics facility in Bangalore, will be sold to the patients at a discount.
CANMAb will be available at about 25 percent discount to the current list price of the reference product - Roche’s Herceptin - in India, which is already significantly lower than its price in developed markets, it added.
[caption id=“attachment_391377” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption]
Herceptin 440mg, is currently sold at Rs 75,000 rpt 75,000 in the country. Biocon’s product would be available in 150 mg and 440 mg strengths which costs Rs 57,500. “In addition, CANMAb’s 150 mg formulation, priced at Rs 19,500/vial, will allow extra savings to patients as they can buy smaller quantities as per their requirement,” the company said.
The company would start selling the drug to patients around the first week of February 2014, it added. Around 1.5 lakh new patients are diagnosed with breast
Impact Shorts
More Shortscancer every year in India, of which nearly 25 per cent cases are eligible for treatment with CANMAb.
Commenting on the launch, Biocon Ltd CMD Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said: “Biocon intends to make a significant difference in the treatment paradigm for HER2-positive breast cancer in India by enhancing access to more affordable treatment with CANMAb (biosimilar trastuzumab), which offers the same level
of safety and efficacy as the reference product.”
CANMAb, which has been developed jointly by Biocon and Mylan under a global partnership, is the world’s first biosimilar version of Roche’s Herceptin drug.
“Both 150 and 440 mg formulations of CANMAb can be stored for one month which is an important offering for patients inIndia, as it will ensure that there is no under-dosing or wastage of drug which is quite common today,” the company said.
The global sales for Herceptin stood at $6.4 billion in 2012, while in India it recorded sales of $21 million.
PTI
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