First Mover

Biocons biosimilar (reverse engineered version of biotech origin drugs), Ogivri (Trastuzumab), was recently approved for its EU launch. A year ago it was approved for the United States.

Jointly developed by Biocon and Mylan, Ogivri is the biosimilar version of Swiss drug maker Roches Herceptin, a breast cancer and gastric cancer drug with sales of $6.9 billion a year worldwide. It has over $2 billion sales in the EU alone. In the US, Ogivri was the first approved biosimilar for Herceptin.

Companies like Pfizer Samsung and Amgen have also developed biosimilars for Herceptin and others are also chasing a similar line but Biocon will have the first mover advantage and is yet to launch the drug in both the geographies.

Biocon chief Kiran Majumdar Shaw has all reasons to be happy at the progress of the difficult to make biosomilars, so far successful for the company.