BRIEF—Merck signs biosimilars deal with VA

US pharma giant Merck & Co acknowledged the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for adopting biosimilar medicines as a means of increasing biologic medicine options for Veterans.

Merck’s biosimilar Renflexis (infliximab-abda) was determined to be the lowest priced offer and was awarded a national contract, therefore it is the infliximab product available on the VA National Formulary.

“We are pleased that VA has chosen to expand access to an important treatment option such as Renflexis for our Veterans who have nobly served this country,” said Patrick Magri, senior vice president, US Hospital & Specialty Business Unit, at Merck.

Renflexis was approved by the US Food and Drug in April 2017 as a biosimilar to Johnson & Johnson's Remicade (infliximab).

Pfizer’s Inflectra (infliximab-dyyb) was approved by the FDA in April 2016.

Renflexis was developed by South Korea’s Samsung Bioepis, which is a joint venture of Samsun and US biotech firm Biogen.