Pharmaceutical Business review

FDA to review Biocon and Mylan’s biosimilar drug for breast cancer

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted Mylan’s biologics license application (BLA) for the biosimilar, MYL-1401O, for review through the 351 (k) pathway.

The expected FDA goal date set under the Biosimilar User Fee Act is 3 September 2017.

The proposed biosimilar version of trastuzumab is indicated to treat several breast and gastric cancers. It is one of the six biologic products co-developed by Mylan and Biocon for the worldwide marketplace.

Mylan has exclusive commercialization rights for MYL-1401O in the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and in the European Union and European Free Trade Association countries.

Biocon holds co-exclusive commercialization rights with Mylan for the product in the remaining parts of the world.

Mylan President Rajiv Malik said: "The FDA acceptance of its BLA marks an important step toward increasing access to this treatment option for patients in the US.

Malik said: “We believe that our comprehensive package of analytical similarity, non-clinical and clinical data submitted with the BLA will demonstrate similarity of the proposed biosimilar trastuzumab to the reference product.

Biocon CEO and joint managing director Arun Chandavarkar said:This development positions Biocon and Mylan among the first companies to be able to address the critical need of U.S. patients for a high-quality biosimilar to treat certain HER2-positive breast cancers in the near future."

The European Medicines Agency is also reviewing Mylan and Biocon's proposed biosimilar trastuzumab.


Image: Biocon building. Photo: courtesy of Biocon.