Roche prepares its counterattack against biosimilars

Roche won't face competition from biosimilars for a few years, but it's already mapped out a three-prong strategy for a counterattack.

Roche won't face competition from biosimilars for a few years, but it's already mapped out a three-prong strategy for a counterattack. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Roche CEO Severin Schwan said that the biopharma giant is planning to aggressively develop biobetters, or improvements on existing biologics, along with new products. And the giant drug company will continue to work with BIO to make sure that anyone planning to pick off one of its bio-blockbusters will have to mount expensive new studies in order to gain an approval.

"Eventually the patents will expire; biosimilars will come into the market. What really counts is, you bring in a new product which has a meaningful clinical difference," Schwan told the Journal. First up: Patents for Herceptin and Mabthera, which expire in Europe in 2014 and 2015. Patents for its Avastin franchise start expiring in 2018.

The Wall Street Journal makes the point that generic competition these days quickly drive