Sandoz’s Pegfilgrastim Biosimilar Under New Review at EMA

On October 27, Sandoz announced that the European Medicines Agency has accepted its re-application for review of its biosimilar version of Neulasta^® as supportive treatment in patients receiving cytotoxic chemotherapy.

Sandoz’s attempt to bring its biosimilar pegfilgrastim to the market was stalled in the US in Q2 2016, when the FDA issued a complete response letter. It had withdrawn its application to the European Medicines Agency in January 2017. However, the new application seems to be bolstered by additional data, according to reports.

Sandoz is expecting to reapply to the FDA in 2019, according to its website.

As noted too often in this space, the journey to approval for a pegfilgrastim biosimilar has been marked by failure and setbacks. However, as shown in the Figure from the MarketRealist, revenues for Neulasta are considerably larger than that for its nonpegylated progenitor, Neulasta (filgrastim). This is a powerful impetus for potential biosimilar manufacturers to succeed. At close to $5 billion in annual revenues, there is little reason to think that a biosimilar pegfilgrastim will not be approved eventually.

Source: The Market Realist.

In other news… AbbVie expects its Humira sales to jump to $21 billion by 2020 from $16 billion today, evidently bolstered by its successful defense of its patents against Amgen.