On November 13, Pfizer began marketing its biosimilar version of epoetin alfa. Pfizer launches Retacrit® at a 33.5% discount to Amgen’s reference product Epogen®.
Retacrit was originally developed by Hospira, which Pfizer acquired in 2015. Retacrit was one of the first biosimilars approved in the EU. It had a long journey to reaching the market in the US, however, including rejections by the FDA for manufacturing plant problems. It was finally approved by the FDA on May 15, 2018. The Retacrit launch comes 180 days after the approval.
The wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) of this biosimilar will be $11.03 per 1,000 units/mL, which represents an even steeper discount (57%) to Epogen’s sister product, Procrit® by Johnson & Johnson.
For Pfizer, this represents their third biosimilar being marketed today (along with Inflectra® and Nevistym®).
