Drug companies such as Switzerland's Roche are expected to be hit by the long-awaited threat of cut-price competition from biosimilar drugs, following regulatory approval of copycat versions of its biological cancer treatments. So far, Roche has seen little impact from the arrival of biosimilar MabThera in Europe, a company spokeswoman said. The European Commission has said it will not approve a new version of Roche's blockbuster drug Gleevec until after regulators have given their final go-ahead for an alternative treatment called Avastin. Together, revenues from Roche's Rituxan, Herceptin and Avastin stood at CHF20.9bn ($21.8bn) for 2016, though their combined sales are expected to fall 40% by 2022.
Drug companies such as Switzerland's Roche are expected to be hit by the long-awaited threat of cut-price competition from biosimilar drugs, following regulatory approval of copycat versions of its biological cancer treatments. The European Commission has said it will not approve a new version of Roche's blockbuster drug Gleevec until after regulators have given their final go-ahead for an alternative treatment called Avastin. Together, revenues from Roche's Rituxan, Herceptin and Avastin stood at CHF20.9bn ($21.8bn) for 2016, though their combined sales are expected to fall 40% by 2022.