BRIEF—Roche takes swipe at Pfizer over Herceptin biosimilar

Swiss drugmaker Roche is suing Pfizer, the world’s biggest pharma company, over alleged infringements of patents relating to the cancer drug Herceptin (trastuzumab).

Roche’s Genentech unit has filed the case in a US court, claiming that Pfizer is infringing 40 patents with biosimilar version of the drug, reports Bloomberg.

The exclusivity which Roche currently has with Herceptin, which earned the company $7 billion in sales last year, is set to end in the USA in 2019.

Korea’s Samsung Bioepis  won the race to gain regulatory approval for a Herceptin biosimilar this week when its copy, branded Ontruzant, was given the nod by the European Commission. Roche’s composition of matter patent covering the biologic in Europe has already expired.