The big pharma companies have decided to shuffle the cards in the game which, for years now, has seen them compete with the producers of generics. To do this they have decided to use the weapons of their enemies, however going to challenge the producers of biotech medicines with products defined as biosimilars (as generics are called in this sector). The interest of big pharma in this segment is explained by the numbers. According to the consultancy firm IMS Health, the market for the most innovative treatments is today worth 200 billion dollars globally (half of the expenditure is made in the United States). “If we look at the major therapies being treated with biotech products and consider the expiration dates of some patents, we see that by 2017, at least 50 billion of that pie could go to biosimilar products. The figure will rise to 70 billion in 2019”. Explains Karen Andersen, an analyst at Morningstar.
A revolution that should also benefit patients. In the segment of traditional treatments, for example, the use of generics (in the US) has made it possible to save 1.500 billion in the last 10 years. In the organic sector, depending on estimates, savings could also be made for figures ranging from 25 to 250 billion in the next decade. Currently, globally, the biosimilars market is worth about 1 billion dollars. “But the market value for innovative, patent-expired treatments is around $12 billion,” Andersen explains.
A growing market
The market leader Sandoz (Novartis group) in 2014, as regards the biosimilars segment, recorded a turnover of 514 million dollars (roughly the value that this market had in 2010). “With the growth in the use of these types of medicines that we are seeing in the United States and with the pace of patent expirations that we will see in the future, the development of the market is expected to accelerate as time goes on,” says the Morningstar analyst. According to ISM calculations, the biosimilars market in 2020 could be worth from 11 to 25 billion dollars, depending on the rate at which the segment is able to grow in the US and the success that the next wave of more complex drugs will have. For Pfizer, the market in five years will have a value of 20 billion (for Morningstar, that figure will be reached in 2024).
The challenge in Europe
Geographically, the market in which companies will have to demonstrate what they are capable of is the European one. Indeed, in the Old Continent, the use of biosimilars is extremely heterogeneous. It is true that many countries encourage the use of this type of product, but companies must adapt to the different health systems in force in individual states. For example: Germany, France, Sweden and Finland mainly distribute them through pharmacies, while England, Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Greece use the hospital channel. Then there are legislative and cultural differences to take into account. German doctors, for example, are obliged to respect quotas for generics when prescribing medicines. A system that is also used for biosimilars. The situation is different in France and Italy, where, for many medicines, the price difference between branded and generic products is not too great.
Source: Morningstar
