BERLIN, Oct 21 (APM) - Biosimilar competition to Remicade (infliximab) is likely to be wiped out in Germany before it even starts after Merck Sharp & Dohme agreed widespread exclusive discount contracts for the branded version, representatives of the generics industry have claimed.
MSD has already signed "first provider discount contracts" for Remicade with German health insurers covering 66% of the population ahead of loss of patent protection on the branded agent next year, ProGenerika said in a statement on Monday.
The lobby group did not give any indication of what discount MSD was using to secure the business, or whether it expected more contracts with other insurers to come, but said it will "destroy competition before it has a chance to develop".
ProGenerika said the first provider discount contracts - a discount manufacturers and individual health insurers can agree on drugs shortly before their patent expires - needed scrapping to remove an unfair advantage with the potential to stifle biosimilar competition entirely.
Also, to stop this "working as a protective fence against competition after patent expiry", ProGenerika called for a two-year gap between loss of patent protection and the right to put out exclusive tender contract on biosimilars - a change proposed by ProGenerika for generics as well. (APMMA 38762)
The Remicade discount contracts are the latest example, alleged by ProGenerika, of barriers to biosimilar competition in general in Germany.
Apart for the waiting period, the lobby group has also called for biosimilar quotas (APMMA 32004), which it has said will allow for quicker biosimilar penetration and help towards saving the health system 12 billion euros by 2020.
Remicade's patent in western Europe is set to expire early next year in Europe, and in 2018 in the U.S. Celltrion's Remsima - to which Mundipharma has recently bought the rights (APMMA 39432) in six western European countries - and Hospira's Inflectra are both approved in Europe already.
The Remicade biosimilars have the same uses as the originator drug, which include rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn's disease and adult and paediatric ulcerative colitis.
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