Expiry of Patents in the Biosimilars Market to Decrease Product Costs and Increase Consumer Orientation

Biosimilars have made a huge hype over the last few decades for being a ground-breaking technology existing in the present pharmaceutical industry, which will eventually lead to a revolutionary change in the way patients are treated. Although the first biosimilar in Europe was developed and approved in Europe in 2006, it has not been commercially accepted by many payers and providers in the industry and hence, they are yet to overtake the conventional treatment methods and become dominant. This can be attributed to the lack of innovation and adequate R&D funds by a large number of companies. Most of the companies in the race for manufacturing biosimilars today are not willing to spend resources on required innovation due to apprehension of getting sued by patent holders leading to market dominance of the patent holding firms. Therefore, the prices of these biosimilars have been extremely higher than the affordable range of the consumer base, thus resulting in lower demand.

Many companies with patented biological drugs have been hampering the acceptance of biosimilars, even though there was a growing need for these products from the patient who cannot afford the exorbitantly priced biological drugs. However, by 2020 most of the patents would expire and this would boost the entry of new entrants. The high cost of pharmaceuticals has become a significant concern in the clash concerned to the ever-increasing costs of healthcare.


When the patent has expired, the drug can be mass-produced and marketed by other companies. This boosts competition and consequently results in a significant plunge in the cost of drugs, which eventually ensures that these drugs are made affordable for general population. This is however a significant problem from the perspective of the biologic drug manufacturer, but this expiry of patents brings an inevitable opportunity for the manufacturers of biosimilars. There are numerous factors like safety, pricing, entry barriers, physician acceptance, and marketing which will make the biosimilar market to grow in a different pace from the generic drug market.