22 September 2015 - The introduction of biosimilar drugs in the U.S., which kicked off this month with Novartis AG’s version of an Amgen Inc. blockbuster, hands health-care payers a new weapon against rising drug prices. But it could be a duller blade than they had hoped.

In Europe, where such close copies of biotechnology drugs have been available for nearly a decade, safety concerns and low awareness have combined to slow the uptake of biosimilars. The launch of a classic generic drug, an exact copy of a chemically made drug, can cause sales of the original to plummet within months, but biosimilars have gained market share much more slowly.

Swiss-based Novartis’s Sandoz unit launched Zarzio, a cheaper biosimilar of Amgen’s Neupogen anti-infection drug for cancer patients, in 2009, but it took four years to overtake sales of the original. Sandoz earlier this month started selling the same biosimilar in the U.S. under the name Zarxio.

For more details, go to: http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-weapon-in-push-to-lower-u-s-biotech-drug-prices-1442965627?mod=asia&mod=djemITPA_t