Mylan’s Commitment to Expand Access to Cancer Treatments Reaches New Milestone

Posted: December 1, 2017

Mylan is celebrating an important victory today on behalf of patients in the U.S. who have HER2-positive breast cancer or metastatic stomach cancer.

The Food and Drug Administration just approved Ogivri™, the first biosimilar in the U.S. to Herceptin® (trastuzumab), a biologic drug that’s part of a new generation of targeted therapies which have radically changed the way cancer is treated. Mylan co-developed Ogivri with Biocon. The approval is significant because of the tremendous value biosimilars offer.

As you may know, biologics typically cost far more than traditional prescription medicines – so much so, that patients often find biologics difficult or impossible to access. More than 20% of cancer patients, for example, report skipping recommended treatments due to high out-of-pocket expenses. As for the overall U.S. healthcare system, biologics accounted for 70% of drug spending growth between 2010 and 2015.

As a company committed to meeting unmet needs and delivering better health, Mylan began investing long ago to build a portfolio of high quality, more affordable versions of biologics and other complex products. As a result, Mylan today is a global leader in their development and manufacturing. Our portfolio includes 16 biosimilar and insulin analog products – one of the industry’s largest and most diverse portfolios.

Like conventional generic drugs, biosimilars are just as safe and effective as their brand-name biologic counterparts. Also like generics, biosimilars can help keep costs down, both for patients and the overall healthcare system. In fact, biosimilars are expected to generate a savings of $54 billion in direct spending on biologic drugs in the U.S. between 2017 and 2026.

Best of all, biosimilars offer hope to patients who might otherwise go untreated – and that’s great news for those representing the estimated 250,000 new cases of female breast cancer and 28,000 new cases of stomach cancer that are expected to be diagnosed this year alone. It’s also great news for everyone who will receive either diagnosis in the years to come.

As one of the largest suppliers by volume of cancer medicines in the U.S., Mylan looks forward to potentially being the very first company to provide patients a biosimilar to Herceptin, having secured global licenses to the biologic from Genentech and Roche earlier this year.

Learn more about Mylan’s work to expand access to biologics and to support patients in the U.S. at every stage of cancer care.

You can read our press release about this milestone here.