Napp launches Neulasta biosimilar in UK

Napp’s Pelmeg, a biosimilar of Amgen’s cancer drug Neulasta (pegfilgrastim), has been launched in the UK following approval late last year. This is Napp’s first launch of a product developed by Cinfa Biotech, which was acquired by its parent network Mundipharma in October. Aside from Pelmeg, Cinfa has one other undisclosed biosimilar in its pipeline. It is not the first pegfilgrastim biosimilar to be launched in Europe, though, as Coherus BioSciences’ Udenyca and Accord Healthcare’s Pelgraz were approved earlier last year.
Meanwhile, Mylan also has a biosimilar approved in the US market. Neulasta is an easy target for companies marketing biosimilars as patents on the original drug have expired. The drug brought in $4.5 billion for Amgen in 2017, and the market for the drug outside the US is worth around $603 million. It is used to reduce the duration of neutropenia and the incidence of febrile neutropenia (FN) for adult patients undergoing cytotoxic chemotherapy. Neutropenia is an abnormally low number of neutrophils – white blood cells that usually fight off bacterial infections and fungi. Patients undergoing chemotherapy are particularly prone to developing neutropenia while their cell counts replenish.