Zarxio tea leaves
What Sandoz's Zarxio will teach industry about biosimilar uptake in the U.S.
As the first approved U.S. biosimilar, Zarxio filgrastim-sndz from Novartis AG's Sandoz unit will give a glimpse at the discount size for biosimilars and how the innovator company responds to the competition. But questions about how naming and interchangeability will affect biosimilar uptake won't be answered until 2017, when a pharmacy-dispensed, chronic use biosimilar is due to hit the market.
On March 6, FDA approved Zarxio for all five the indications for which Amgen Inc.'s Neupogen filgrastim is approved: to decrease the risk of infection in patients undergoing chemotherapy; reduce the time to neutrophil recovery following chemotherapy; reduce the duration of neutropenia in patients undergoing bone marrow transplant; mobilize autologous hematopoietic progenitor cells for leukapheresis; and reduce the incidence and duration of severe neutropenia. ...