Ten Years On, Access To Biosimilars Still Patchy in EU

April saw the 10th anniversary of the first biosimilar approval in Europe –Sandoz International GMBH's Omnitrope (somatropin) – which was launched in 2006. But a decade on, even with 20 biosimilar products now available and many more to come as big biological drugs lose their patent protection, there are still significant barriers to biosimilar penetration and wide variations in patient access across the EU that need to be addressed.

Scientist

April saw the 10th anniversary of the first biosimilar approval in Europe –Sandoz International GMBH's Omnitrope (somatropin) – which was launched in 2006. But a decade on, even with 20 biosimilar products now available and many more to come as big biological drugs lose their patent protection, there are still significant barriers to biosimilar penetration and wide variations in patient access across the EU that need to be addressed.

Now that the EU regulatory system for biosimilars is pretty much firmly established, attention is increasingly turning to questions such...

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