Intas becomes first company to launch biosimilar of Lucentis

Indian company Intas Pharmaceuticals has launched Razumab in India, its biosimilar to Lucentis (ranibizumab), from Genentech, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Roche (SIX: ROG) and which is marketed by fellow Swiss pharma giant Novartis (NOVN: VX) outside North America and Mexico.

This is the first biosimilar version of ranibizumab, and comes as a single dose sterile vial. Ranibizumab is a therapeutic antibody fragment designed to treat degenerative conditions of the eye, blocking the production of vascular endothelial cell growth factor A (VEGF-A), which, when overexpressed, leads to abnormal blood vessel growth in the retina, causing leaks and vision loss.

Ranibizumab is indicated to treat neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration, and macular edema following retinal vein occlusion, diabetic macular edema, diabetic retinopathy in patients with diabetic macular edema, and vision loss resulting from choroidal neovascularization in pathological myopia.