Samsung Bioepis takes another jewel off J&J's Remicade crown

US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) has dropped its lawsuit against Samsung Bioepis relating to the latter’s biosimilar of the blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis treatment Remicade (infliximab).

J&J earned nearly $10 billion last year from Remicade, the group’s top-selling pharma product, but this revenue could start to slip if biosimilar competitors start to gain market share.

Celltrion Healthcare (Kosdaq: 068270) and Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) biosimilar version, named Inflectra, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2016, followed a year later by Samsung Bioepis’ copy, called Renflexis and marketed in the USA by drug giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK).