Biosimilars: A Brief Overview

In a world of high competition, expensive health care costs and the need for patient access to various biologic treatments lead to the development of biosimilars. Biosimilar is a biological product that has great similarity to a biologic drug which was taken as a reference having no clinical differences. Companies are eligible to manufacture them when the exclusive patent on the biological product has expired. They are approved according to the same standards of pharmaceutical quality. As they are comparatively cheaper than biological products, they have better reach among many patients. They are mainly targeted towards treating non-communicable diseases such as cancer, asthma, and arthritis. An alarming rise of cases of non-communicable diseases is being seen across various developing countries thereby increasing the value of biosimilars. Versavo is a classic example of a biosimilar product launched in India which is referenced from Roche’s Avastin which has shown its effectiveness in the treatment of various types of cancers. Even though biosimilars accomplish the same results as branded drugs, they have a different composition and their development period is longer than the generic drugs.