Biosimilar trastuzumab – are we afraid or looking forward?

04/2018

Doc. MUDr. David Vrána, Ph.D.

Onkologická klinika LF UP a FN Olomouc

SUMMARY

Trastuzumab represents one of the fundamental targeted molecule in oncological practice. Due to the high breast cancer incidence, constantly increasing patient survival with HER2 positive breast cancer the overall treatment cost is increasing rapidly. Since the patent of Herceptin has expired there is an intense effort to replace the Herceptin with cheaper equivalents. Biosimilars represents one of the possible option. Recently there are several trastuzumab biosimilars registered by EMA (Ontruzant, Kanjinti, Herzuma) and further molecules are in the approval process. The usage of the biosimilars may represent the saving about 20-30% of the original price and this could possible extend the insurance reimbursement to further indications. Biosimilars are used in Czech Republic for many years with generally good experience however due to the different approval proces of the biosimilars compared with original drugs there has to be a caution about possible side effects which may not manifest during the testing on relatively small group of patients.

KEY WORDS

trastuzumab, biosimilars, breast cancer, HER2