FiercePharma | Eric Sagonowsky
Each year, dozens of branded pharmaceutical products lose their patent
protections in a process that routinely paves the way for cheap generics. This
year is no different, and the drugs opening up to copycat competitors
represent some serious sales heft. And as usual, you'll see
some household names at the top of the list of U.S. expirations.
What's different these days can be summed up in one word: biosimilars. In
the past, patent expirations brought immediate generic competition and the
sales hit that come along with them. Now, with biosimilar development a more
spendy and complicated proposition—not to mention the delays triggered by the
biosimilar pathway's "patent dance"—a patent loss doesn't necessarily
open the gates to copycats.