Conferences

The commoditisation of generic medicines markets could be a real threat to the sustainability of the industry, Ms Francesca Bruce of Scrip News heard at the European Generic medicines Association's (EGA) annual conference recently held in Barcelona, Spain.

Post-translational modifications (PTMs), particularly glycosylation, will play a critical role in how biosimilars – also called follow-on biologics or biogenerics – and will eventually be approved in the US. This stated science writer Mr Angelo DePalma in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News of 1 February 2009.

So far, three types of biosimilar medicines have been approved in the EU – somatropin (human growth hormone, hGH), epoetin (erythropoietin, EPO) and filgrastim (granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, G-CSF)) – in the form of 13 marketing authorisations from various companies under many different names.

“The EU needs greater regulatory capacity and automatic pricing and reimbursement to deal with the number of generics required to serve the market”, said Mr Georg Stark, Joint Managing Director of Alfred E Tiefenbacher GmbH & Co, speaking at the Drug Information Association (DIA) 21st Annual EuroMeeting held in Berlin, Germany, from 23-25 March 2009.