Biosimilars - a new treatment pathway?

Starburst

A relative gave me the Arthritis Research UK magazine and I found this article interesting, so thought I'd share. This could be positive news for us autoimmuners.

http://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/arthritis-information/arthritis-today-magazine/163-winter-2014/the-rise-of-biosimilars.aspx

New biological therapies for inflammatory arthritis continue to flood the market. With patents for the older anti-TNF-therapies, such as infliximab, due to expire in the next couple of years, a new class of cheaper, similar drugs will become available.

This part is also interesting:

The first monoclonal antibody biosimilars have recently been licensed for use in the UK. Inflectra, marketed by Hospira and Remsima, manufactured by Celltrion, are essentially the same infliximab biosimilar of the original product Remicade, made by Johnson & Johnson. They have been approved by the EMA for the treatment of inflammatory conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis. Although Inflectra and Remsima have been approved, a last minute extension of the original patent on Remicade means that they are now unlikely to be available in the UK before February 2015. When they finally hit the shelves, Inflectra and Remsima are predicted to be around 30% cheaper than the original drug. Another infliximab biosimilar, as well as several etanercept and rituximab biosimilars, are also currently in late stage clinical trials.

It also talks a bit about why some people do not respond to anti TNFs and research into finding genes and proteins that trigger the autoimmune responses, with the hope of moving towards a more individualised approach.

barbara12

Thanks for sharing this I am sure it will be of interest to many.

stickywicket

Good. The more the merrier. In the bad old days I always seemed to be chasing the latest meds. It's good news for those in that position now.

Mormodook

That is really interesting Starburst . I'm waiting on being approved for anti tnf ( unsure which one yet ) but all this research seems like a positive thing. Hopefully with time these new drugs won't just focus on how much cheaper they are but will reassure us of greater safety and less potential horrible side effects. Thanks for sharing this ..... Food for thought !

phoenixoxo

Hi Sophie,

Thanks for sharing! Concerning anti-TNFs, I'm in the c.40 per cent of patients who can't tolerate or don't respond (in my case, the latter), so it's good to read this sort of thing

Best wishes,
Phee

P.S. Halloumi's great!