by Richard Staines
LONDON, Jan 9 (APM) - Large generics companies will focus more on complicated products involving devices such as inhalers and patches, as they search for higher margins in new niche markets, the head of Europe's generics lobby group has told APM on Friday.
In an interview with APM looking ahead at developments in the coming year, Adrian van den Hoven, director general of the European Generic Medicines Association (EGA) said that this area of the market is overlooked by observers who are preoccupied with the potential of biosimilars to produce savings for health systems.
He argued that with the patent expiry on drugs such as GlaxoSmithKline’s Seretide (salmeterol+fluticasone) respiratory drug in 2013 has opened another market sector that could provide opportunities for generics firms which they will not ignore.
Novartis's Sandoz generics arm and Vectura launched a cheaper version of Seretide in Europe last year (APMMA 38444) and van den Hoven said similar products incorporating devices will follow from rival manufacturers.
The complex nature of these products has previously put off generics companies from developing copies, but they are increasingly willing to take financial risks and invest in this kind products amid intense pressure on prices for pills such as statins.
Van den Hoven said: “It is an area where there is a lot of space to develop packages. It is important to our industry to move into more complex products, where there has not been much competition (to originator drugs) to date.”
“The downside is that it is higher risk and the development costs are significant. If you don’t succeed you face very big costs on your balance sheet.
“The big companies such as Sandoz, Mylan and Teva are going to do it seriously and it is going to have a big impact on the industry and a positive one.”
Van den Hoven said said this was the latest step in the generics industry's move into specialist space, rather than pure-play generic compounds and would be exemplified by inhalers and patches.
The benefits for payers were being overlooked and products such as these will be as important as biosimilars for reducing healthcare systems’ drug spend, he argued.
“They (generic companies) are moving into a higher end product that is more complicated" and "fundamental for the sustainability of the healthcare system,” van den Hoven argued.
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