Both biosimilar and reference biologics companies must consider product-specific and regional strategies

With sales forecasted to exceed $16.8 billion by 2021, manufacturers competing in the biosimilars market must adopt clear and effective strategies early in product development to maximize potential commercial return.

According to Biosimilars Advisory Service: Corporate Strategies, from health care advisory firm Decision Resources; BioTrends Research unit, after identifying an optimal biologic target and determining partnerships, biosimilar sponsors need to balance clinical development burdens with sales and marketing strategies and the option of pursuing interchangeability status in the USA in order to compete successfully.

The 2013 report finds that, despite a continued increase of branded biologics sales through 2014, the entrance of commercially relevant, lower-cost biosimilars and resultant brand price cuts will cause the overall biologics market to decrease over the second half of the forecast period across the seven major pharmaceutical markets.