Russia’s Biocad to continue sales of anti-cancer drugs in Sri Lanka despite Roche protests

PL: Biocad, one of Russia’s largest drugmakers, has won a legal action against pharma giant Roche in the Sri Lanka Court, which was initiated at the request of the Swiss company to ban sales of Biocad’s anti-cancer drugs in Sri Lanka as well as the cancellation of their registration.

At the end of March 2016, Roche appealed to the Court of Sri Lanka with a lawsuit against the local distributor of the drugs trastuzumab and bevacizumab (brand names Herceptin and Avastin, respectively) which are produced by Biocad.

According to Roche, there were substantial violations in the procedure of registration of these drugs in Sri-Lanka. Roche also said that there is currently no evidence that confirms the efficiency and safety of these drugs, due to the lack of clinical trials.

However, as a result of judicial investigations, the Sri Lankan Court dismissed the claims of Roche in full, and lifted a ban on the turnover of Biocad’s anticancer drugs in the territory of Sri Lanka.

For its part, Biocad has filed a counterclaim to Roche, seeking to compensate for the damage caused by the Roche lawsuit.

Biocad plans to sell trastuzumab and bevacizumab drugs in Sri Lanka on the sum of more than 100 million roubles ($1.6 million). The drugs are much cheaper than their analogues, produced by Roche, the Russian drugmaker stated.

Separately, Biocad has announced its plans to launch a new drug for the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis into the Russian and foreign markets during the 2019-2020 period.

To date, the company has already started a second phase of clinical trials of the drug, which is known as BCD-085.

In addition to the domestic market, the drug will be supplied to the market of CIS states, as well as Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. After the end of the second phase of clinical trials, the drug will be exported to the EU and the US markets.

According to Biocad’s plans, the launch of BCD-085 will allow it to control up to 25% of the domestic market for the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis in the middle term.

It is planned that the new drug will be mainly compete with its foreign analogue, which is known as secukinuma, and marketed by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis as Cosentyx. The BCD-085 is expected to be more accessible to Russian patients, which will be mainly due to its lower price, compared to foreign analogues.  (Source: http://www.thepharmaletter.com/)