Industry Partnerships, Key Success Factor to Win in the Biosimilars Space

Abstract

Over the past few years, biosimilars became the promised land of the pharmaceutical industry. Seven out of the top ten drugs are biologics. And all are about to lose patent protection by 2020, representing an underlying pool of $60bn branded sales. While it looks like the next Eldorado is in front of us, the biosimilars market is also a challenging opportunity, where the players have to deal with high R&D costs, unclear regulatory pathways, and uncertainty around business models. To make the biosimilars opportunity a sustainable market, it has to be profitable. In this article, I would like to discuss how innovative business models can help biosimiliars players to de-risk and ensure profitability. Looking at the example of the airline industry and analyzing the development chain for biosimilars, I would like to propose options to de-risk investments, optimize costs, and maximize sales.