1 Executive Summary
1.1 Aims of this Report
1.2 Chapter Summaries
2. Introduction
2.1 Brief Background of Biotech Drugs
2.1.1 Commonly Used Terminology
2.1.2 Summary of Recombinant DNA Technology
2.1.3 Classes of Biotech Drugs
2.2 Biotech Drugs Are Increasing in Importance
2.2.1 Biopharmaceuticals Are Versatile Agents
2.2.2 Biopharmaceuticals Share 12.5% of 2004 Global Prescriptions
2.2.3 In 2004 the Biopharmaceuticals Market Was Worth $55.7bn
2.2.4 Monoclonal Antibodies: Leading Class of Biopharmaceuticals in 2004 With Sales of $13bn
2.2.5 In 2004 Biotech Drugs Were Worth Over 10% of the World Pharma Market
2.2.6 Biotech Pipelines are Growing
2.2.5 In 2004 Biotech Drugs Were Worth Over 10% of the World Market for Drugs
2.2.6 Biotech Pipelines Are Growing
2.3 The Success of Generics
2.3.1 The Hatch-Waxman Act in the US
2.3.2 Governments Look to Generics to Cut Healthcare
Costs
2.4 The Emergence of Biogenerics
2.4.1 The Failure of Hatch-Waxman for Biologicals
2.4.2 Patent Expiry for Key Biotech Drugs
2.4.3 Lack of Regulatory Guidelines Delays the Growth of Biogenerics
2.4.4 Names Are Important
3. Drivers and Restraints
3.1 SWOT Analysis
3.2 Healthcare Costs Are Rising and Biotech Drugs Are a Large Part of these Costs
3.3 Major Markets Accept Generic Replacements
3.4 Improved Technology Has Strengthened the Case for Biogenerics
3.5 Large Generic Companies Have the Resources to Develop Biogenerics
3.6 High Revenues Will Encourage the Development of Biogenerics
3.7 Asian Pharmaceutical Markets Display High Growth
3.8 Bioequivalence Will Remain Difficult to Demonstrate
3.9 Biotech Drugs Are Expensive to Develop
3.10 Biotech Drugs Often Target Niche Markets
3.11 Regulators and Patients Are Cautious Over Safety
3.11.1 Adverse Events Connected to Branded Biotech Drugs Will Disproportionately Affect Biogenerics
3.12 The Next Generation of Biotech Drugs Will Restrain Growth in Biogenerics
3.13 The Key Question for Biogenerics - How Innovative Do You Need to Be?
4. Biogeneric Regulations
4.1 The FDA Has No Procedure for Biogenerics
4.1.1 The Generics Industry Desperately Needs a Ruling on Biogenerics
4.1.2 Omnitrope - A Test Case?
4.1.3 The Omnitrope Case Proves That Section 505(b)(2) is Insufficient
4.2 The EMEA Leads the Way
4.2.1 Guidelines Are Released on a Case-by-case Basis
4.3 The Future of Biogeneric Legislation
4.3.1 The EU is Ahead But the FDA Will Catch Up
4.3.2 The Right Communication Strategy is Vital
4.3.3 Insulin, Growth Hormones and Other Simple Proteins Will Benefit From Relaxed Regulations
4.3.4 Lack of Commercial Appreciation May Inhibit Biogeneric Growth
5. Using Technology to Demonstrate Bioequivalence
5.1 General Approach to Regulatory Approval of Biogenerics
5.1.1 Consult with the Regulatory Authorities Often
5.1.2 Simple Methods May Be Best
5.1.3 Structure/Function Relationship Is the Key to Reducing the Requirement for Clinical Trials
5.2 A Summary of Available Techniques
5.2.1 Defining Primary Structure
5.2.2 Defining Secondary/Tertiary Structure
5.2.3 An Orthogonal Comparative Approach Can Compensate for Conclusive Structural Data
5.3 Specific Considerations
5.3.1 Different Glycosylation States
5.3.2 Immunogenicity
6. Possible Biogeneric Drugs
6.1 The Complexity of Biogenerics Varies
6.1.1 Patents for Biotech Drugs Are Complicated But Should Not Be Taken for Granted
6.1.2 Complexity Will Ultimately Define the Success of Biogenerics and Not Patent Loss
6.2 Insulins 6.2.1 Innovation Has Produced a Range of Insulin Products
6.2.2 Insulin is Off-patent But Key Patents Remain
6.2.3 Generic Insulins Will Be Amongst the First Biogenerics But Will Not Claim High Market Share
6.3 Human Growth Hormone (Somatropin)
6.3.1 The Human Growth Hormone Market Has a Large Number of Similar Products
6.3.2 Genotropin Leads the Somatropin Market
6.3.3 The Biogeneric hGH Market Will Grow But Competition Will Restrict this Growth
6.4 Epoetin Alpha
6.4.1 Epoetin Products Have Been Successful
6.4.2 The Patent for Epoetin Alpha Has Expired
6.4.3 The Regulatory Authorities Will Require Extensive Data for EPO
6.5 Interferons
6.5.1 Many Interferon Drugs Have Lost Patent Protection
6.5.2 The Interferon Market Is Growing
6.5.3 Interferons Are Going to Face High Competition from Biogenerics
6.6 Other Possible Targets for Biogenerics
6.6.1 Neupogen Sales Are Maintained Despite the Introduction of Neulasta
6.6.2 NovoSeven
7. Opinions and Strategies for Biogenerics
7.1 Pharmaceutical/Biotech Industry
7.1.1 Branded Companies See Biotech as Solution to Generic Erosion
7.1.2 Lobbying Against Biogenerics Has Been Successful So Far
7.1.3 Smart Lifecycle Management Is Key
7.1.4 Cost Cuts Will Play a Major Role in the Future
7.1.5 Could Big Pharma Venture into Biogenerics?
7.2 Generics Industry
7.2.1 The Generics Industry Needs to Win the Process Vs Product Debate
7.2.2 The Generics Industry Believes that the Right Technology Is Available
7.2.3 Brand Recognition is Important for Biogenerics
7.2.4 Are Transgenics the Answer to Cost Pressures?
7.3 Patients’ Views Are Often Ignored
7.3.1 Complicated Treatments Result in Well Informed, Opinionated Patients
7.3.2 Patients Do Not Believe It Is a Straight Switch
7.3.3 Pharmacovigilance Is the Key to Persuading Patients
8. Biogenerics in India and China
8.1 Chinese and Indian Pharmaceutical Industries Are Growing in Importance
8.2 Both Markets Have a High Demand for Low Cost Biologicals
8.3 Lack of Regulations Have Allowed the Biotech Industry to Flourish
8.4 India Has Vast Experience of Biotechnology
8.4.1 India Has the Advantage of FDA-recognised Sites and Global Companies
8.4.2 There Are Biogenerics on the Indian Market and More in the Pipeline
8.4.3 Growth of Clinical Trials Industry Means Faster Development
8.5 China
8.5.1 There Is High Government Investment in the Biotech Industry
8.5.2 Lack of Global Presence Will Restrict the Chinese Biogenerics Industry
8.5.3 Weak International Patent Protection Remains an Obstacle
8.6 Asian Companies Will Play a Major Role in the Biogenerics Industry But Global Companies Will Not Be Left Behind
9. Leading Biogeneric Companies
9.1 Global Generics Companies Venture into Biogenerics
9.1.1 Teva Has the Resources and the Expertise to Succeed
9.1.2 Sandoz Can Build on its Biotech Experience
9.1.3 Pliva
9.2 Smaller Biotech Companies Specialising in Biogenerics
9.2.1 BioPartners
9.2.2 Cangene
9.2.3 GeneMedix
9.2.4 Bioceuticals (Stada)
9.2.5 BioGenerix (Ratiopharm)
9.3 Asian Companies Seek to Expand into Lucrative Markets
9.3.1 Dr Reddy's Laboratories
9.3.2 Wockhardt
9.3.3 Dragon Pharmaceuticals
9.4 Companies Are Concentrating on the Low Hanging Fruit
Conclusion: Biogenerics Have Arrived
10.1 EU Guidelines Will Help Create a Worldwide Biogenerics Market
10.2 Careful Attention to Detail Is Essential for Biogeneric Submissions
10.3 Case-by-case Assessment Will Limit Growth But Build Confidence
10.4 Complexity is Key - Generic MAbs Will Have to Wait
List of Tables and Figures
Table 2.1 Biopharmaceuticals Revenue ($m) by Drug Class, 2004
Table 2.2 Top 20 Selling Biopharmaceuticals ($m) 2004
Table 2.3 Biopharmaceutical Revenues ($m) by Drug Class, 2004
Table 2.4 World Drug and Biopharmaceutical Revenues ($bn) and by Market Share (%), 2004
Table 2.5 Number of Biotech Drugs in Development for the Top Ten Pharmaceutical Companies, 2006
Table 3.1 Summary of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) for the Biogenerics Market, 2006
Table 3.2 Generic Market Share (%) by Value and Volume in Leading Pharmaceutical Markets, 2005
Table 3.3 Growth Rates (%) for Pharmaceutical Markets with Biogenerics, 2005
Table 5.1 Different Methods of Ionisation for Mass Spectrometry
Table 5.2 Number of Glycosylation Sites on Possible Biogeneric Drugs
Table 6.1 The Varying Complexity of Biotech Drugs
Table 6.2 Recombinant Insulin Analogues, 2006
Table 6.3 Revenues ($m) and Patent Expiration Dates for Leading Insulin Products, 2005
Table 6.4 World Revenues ($m) for Leading Human Growth Hormone Products, 2005
Table 6.5 World Revenues ($m) for Epoetin Drugs, 2005
Table 6.6 Patent Expiration Dates for EPO products, 2006
Table 6.7 Global Revenues ($m) from Interferon Drugs, 2005
Table 6.8 Patent Expiration Dates for Interferon Drugs, 2006
Table 6.9 Selected Potential Targets for Biogenerics
Table 6.10 Patent Expiration Dates for Selected Biotech Drugs, 2006
Table 7.1 Biotech Drugs in Development for Leading Pharmaceutical Companies, 2006
Table 7.2 Second Generation Replacements for Leading Biotech Drugs, 2006
Table 8.1 Indian Companies with Biogeneric Products on the Indian Market, 2006
Table 9.1 Companies Entering the Biogenerics Market, 2006
Table 9.2 Biogeneric Drugs in Development, 2006
Figure 2.1 Recombinant DNA Technologies and Biotech
Figure 2.2 Market Share (%) of Biotech Drugs by Therapeutic Area, 2004
Figure 2.3 Market Share (%) by Revenue for Biotech Drugs, 2004
Figure 2.4 Size of Biotech Pipelines for the Top Ten Pharmaceutical Companies, 2006
Figure 2.5 Growth Rates (%) for Total US Healthcare Spending, 2001-2004
Figure 2.6 Growth Rates (%) for US Prescription Drugs, 2002-2004
Figure 4.1 Current EU Framework for Biologically Similar Products, 2006
Figure 6.1 Market Share (%) by Brand Name for Somatropin Products, 2005
Figure 6.2 Revenues ($m) for Epoetin Products, 2002-2005
Figure 6.3 Total Revenues ($m) for Epoetin Products, 2002-2005
Figure 6.4 EPO Branded Market Share (%), 2005
Figure 6.5 World Interferon Revenues ($m), 2003-2005
Figure 6.6 Market Share (%) for Individual Drugs in the Interferon Market, 2005
Figure 6.7 World Revenues ($m) for Neupogen and Neulasta, 2002-2005
Figure 6.8 World Revenues ($m) for NovoSeven, 2002-2005
Figure 9.1 DRL Revenue by Region, 2005
Figure 9.2 Wockhardt Revenue by Region, 2005