Soliris Biosimilars Edge Closer In Brazil

Alexion’s blockbuster Soliris (eculizumab) could face biosimilar competition in Brazil after a court upheld a decision stipulating that the so-called mailbox patent relating to the product expired in 2015. According to the prosecutors in the case, other drugs could be similarly affected.

On April 20, the Superior Court of Justice, the highest appellate court in Brazil, upheld a previous ruling that the term of the patent covering Soliris, a treatment for conditions such as paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), should be 20 years from the date it was filed (in May 1995)