FDA Expectations for Demonstrating Interchangeability.

There is a great interest from global companies who are developing biosimilars to pursue interchangeability designation for commercialization of their products in the US. An interchangeability designation will not only allow the substitutability at the pharmacy level without the intervention of a health care provider but the first sponsor who is able to garner interchangeability designation will also receive 12 months of marketing exclusivity. This paper will highlight our current understanding of FDA expectations with regards to demonstrating interchangeability.

Challenges With the Development of Biosimilars in Asia for Western Markets: An Overview and Suggested Solutions.

There is a great interest from companies located in Asia to bring biosimilars into Western markets such as the United States, European Union, and Canada, because these are lucrative markets with patents expiring or close to expiry for many originator biologics. Although many sponsors are successfully developing and marketing biosimilars for their own countries, there is an increasing interest among companies in China, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Taiwan, and other Asian countries in targeting markets in the West. As a result, there is widespread interest among these companies in learning about the requirements for regulatory approval in Western countries.

Biosimilars in rheumatology: understanding the rigor of their development.

This article examines the current landscape of biosimilar development in rheumatology. As misperceptions about biosimilars exist regarding their comparability to the reference products for clinical use, we review the development paradigm with the goal of improving rheumatologists' understanding of the rigor with which biosimilars are developed. With an emphasis on European Union and US markets, it gives an overview of some of the challenges and issues related to biosimilar development that need to be considered by rheumatologists in this increasingly growing therapeutic space.