Johnson & Johnson REMICADE is attacked, Pfizer bio generics will be launched in the United States in November

Source: nai500 2016-10-19 Pfizer recently announced that it will begin to sell biomimilars of REMICADE, a Johnson & Johnson heavyweight rheumatoid arthritis drug, on the U.S market at the end of November, at a 15% discount to the current wholesale price of REMICADE Pfizer's drug will be sold under the brand name infractra The drug, already on the market in Europe and elsewhere, will be the second bio generic to be sold in the US REMICADE is Johnson & Johnson's best-selling drug, with annual sales of about $5 billion in the U.S market J & J's 2016 earnings forecast did not consider that it may face competition from REMICADE bio generic this year After hours, the company's share price fell nearly 0.5% to $118.00 J & J said that any sales volume of Pfizer REMICADE bio generic drugs may be at risk, and if Pfizer is ruled by the court as infringing REMICADE's patent, then J & J may claim three times compensation for these sales A Pfizer spokesman declined to comment on the ongoing litigation Pfizer said the biosimilars were priced below REMICADE's wholesale price and had not yet considered discounts for health insurers, distributors or other purchasing organizations Michael Weinstein, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase, pointed out in the research report that REMICADE's revenue is expected to decrease by more than $1 billion in 2017, resulting in a 20 cent decrease in earnings per share of J & J "The 15% discount offered by infratra should be enough to attract new patients, but perhaps not enough to attract patients who use REMICADE on a regular basis," Weinstein said "We intend to ensure REMICADE remains an affordable treatment option for patients and physicians through a series of innovative contract options, discounts and refunds to payers, suppliers and drug benefit managers," Johnson said in the announcement In addition to treating rheumatoid arthritis as REMICADE, infractra has also been approved for the treatment of Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis Last year, Novartis began selling the biosimilars of the anti infective drug neupogen in the U.S market, the first biosimilars approved for the U.S market At present, many companies are developing imitated versions of the best-selling biological drugs for rheumatoid arthritis and cancer English source: Reuters