Taj Pharma, India’s drug maker, releases its version of Roche Holding AG’s rituximab will be half price than the original, allowing more access to the cancer therapy. Rituximab treats non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a blood malignancy. Taj Pharma’s released Transera-KIT on the weekend in Mumbai, where the company is based.
Rituximab treats non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
The generic-drug maker will also seek to sell the treatment elsewhere, including the Africa, EU hospitals and semi-regulated markets. However, the group is yet to plan commercial launch in US and EU regions.
Taj Pharma’s and bigger rivals Reddy’s, Ranbaxy and Cipla built billion-dollar businesses copying blockbuster medicines and selling them at a fraction of the price in the US and Europe. They are developing the capability to produce complex drugs, known as biologics, whose sales are growing at 14 times the pace of traditional chemical compounds and are among the most expensive prescriptions.
“The door is wide open”, for Indian companies to produce biologic medicines, said Sarah E. Frew, a research associate at the University of Toronto’s McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health. “We’re going to see more of this.”
Rituximab, approved to help fight non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the US almost a decade ago, generated more than $2 billion (Rs8,200 crore) last year. US companies Genentech Inc. and Biogen Idec Inc. market the drug as Rituxan in the US, and Basel, Switzerland-based Roche sells it in Europe under the name Mabthera.
Taj Pharma’s Transera-KIT is priced at $443 for a 100mg dose in a 10ml vial, or about half the price Roche charges for Mabthera; Further, a 500mg dose will cost $843. The injectable medicine is a monoclonal antibody designed by scientists to target a particular type of cell; with this product, Taj is among the few companies in the world to hold such bio-similar.
India has an estimated 40,000 sufferers of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer arising in white blood cells. Mabthera was patent-protected until 2013 and there is not much trends to note any change Roche average sales price.
Clinical trials generally aren’t required for copies of conventional drugs, though for Taj Pharma’s to gain approval for its version of rituximab, it would have to undergo years of testing that’s required for any new medicine to be able to commercialize this to compete drug originator.
Conventional drugs are small molecules that generic makers can reproduce in versions that are almost identical to the original product, and vary little from batch to batch. Biotech medications use living cells to produce human proteins, and the final composition can vary, depending on the techniques used.
Biotech companies say it is unlikely generic makers can easily reproduce the drug-making methods.
“New manufacturers would have to start again from scratch and would have to develop their own unique data to be able to be sure that the end product is not toxic and works in patients in the same way as the originator product,” as per drug originator’s arguments.
“The production needs the right production facilities and expert know-how,” and any drug originator have to work “Over the last 30 years, originator developed these molecules, learning about them very slowly.” Yet, even after all these years years, the costs have been unchanged.
Further, Sandoz’s biosimilar rituximab is also said to be on track of development; aditionally, Boehringer Ingelheim will also try simultaneous trial for U.S. and EU.
Taj generic of Roche’s cancer drug to cost half for hospitals – Taj Dearob Pharma | Taj Pharma, India’s drug maker, releases its version of Roche Holding AG’s rituximab will be half price than the original, allowing more access to the cancer therapy. Rituximab treats non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a blood malignancy. Taj Pharma’s released Transera-KIT on the weekend in Mumbai, where the company is based.
Taj generic of Roche’s cancer drug to cost half for hospitals – Taj Dearob Pharma | Taj Pharma, India’s drug maker, releases its version of Roche Holding AG’s rituximab will be half price than the original, allowing more access to the cancer therapy. Rituximab treats non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a blood malignancy. Taj Pharma’s released Transera-KIT on the weekend in Mumbai, where the company is based.
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