Partners Teva and Celltrion Announce Launch of Herzuma

Approved in 2018, Herzuma^® is hitting the market, announced Teva and Celltrion. Teva, which is marketing the trastuzumab biosimilar in the US and Canada, will begin offering the biosimilar at a wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) of 10% below that of the reference biologic Herceptin^®.

In a press release, Brendan O’Grady, Executive Vice President of Teva’s North America Commercial operation, stated, “The launch of Herzuma continues our commitment to help lower healthcare costs and increase price competition through the availability of biosimilars. Teva is continuing to invest in biopharmaceuticals as part of our long-term strategy for the future, and to help patients around the world, and we look forward to additional milestones for our biosimilar products later this year.”

Celltrion’s Vice Chairman Hyoung-Ki Kim added, “We look forward to continuing our partnership with Teva to bring biosimilars to as many patients as possible in the US, as we believe they address an unmet need in the market.”

Herzuma will be the fourth trastuzumab biosimilar to reach the US market, behind Amgen’s Kanjinti^®, Mylan/Biocon’s Ogivri^®, and Pfizer’s Trazimera^®, which launched in February.

Teva announced that the WAC prices for the 150-mg and 420-mg doses will be $1,402.50 and $3,927, respectively, or 10% below that for Herceptin. However, net costs to plans and insurers are likely to be considerably lower due to competition. The partners said in their press release, “Actual costs to individual patients and providers for Herzuma are anticipated to be lower than WAC, because WAC does not account for additional rebates and discounts that may apply.”

Uptake of biosimilar trastuzumab has been brisk since the launch of Kanjinti in July 2019. According to data from Sanford C. Bernstein and Company’s Ronny Gal, biosimilar trastuzumab have penetrated 17% of Herceptin’s market as of January 2020.