Mylan’s biosimilar for Herceptin® has FDA approval since December 2017.  Several months earlier, in March 2017, Mylan reached a global settlement with Roche and Genentech regarding their patents covering the drug.  The terms of the settlement have not been made public, which raises the question – when did Mylan agree to launch? 

We previously wrote about Roche’s encroaching biosimilars for Ritxuan®, Herceptin®, and Avastin®.  This week, Roche prevailed on two IPRs covering patents for Herceptin®, but lost a third IPR covering another patent for the same drug. What does this mean? 

The biosimilars are biting.  And they are biting at three big biologics distributed by Roche through its biotech subsidiary, Genentech.  Roche currently faces pending biosimilar competition against Avastin® (bevacizumab), Roche’s biggest selling cancer drug, Herceptin® (trastuzmab), Roche’s breast-cancer drug, and Rituxan® (rituximab), Roche’s immunotherapy drug.  All three drugs are involved in patent litigations. How long will these cases last? And how long can Roche keep the biosimilars out?

The biosimilar statute, Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA, was passed in 2010.  Since then, drug companies have been filing biosimilar applications with FDA.  And even though, FDA has approved only nine biosimilar drugs today, an interesting trend may be emerging: biosimilars may be more willing to launch at-risk than small-molecule generics.