High Value Injectable Drugs Going Off Patent

Many injectable high value drugs going off patent in the US and Europe in the next decade. These drugs include treatments for cancer, venous thrombosis, gastrointestinal disorders, and hospital acquired infections.

Generic companies are also looking at older high value biopharmaceuticals, including erythropoietin, filgrastim, recombinant insulin, somatropin and interferon, which offer large revenue potentials. Biosimialr products have note yet been approved in the US or EU.

Though generics have traditionally been seen as cheaper oral brand equivalents due to their lower cost of production, generic manufacturers are searching for higher profit margins. Injectable lines offer potentially lucrative opportunities.

Combined sales of the non-biological injectables were approximated at US $16.5 billion in 2005, of which approximately US $5.5 billion will lose patent protection in the US by 2010. The proprietary biopharmaceuticals that are believed most likely to become available as generics after passing regulatory hurdles have sales of approximately US $25.4 billion.

Source: Business Wire, January 6, 2006.