US competition brewing for Lilly's Forteo blockbuster

Californian biosimilars firm Pfenex (NYSE: PFNX) has won approval for PF708, which references Forteo (teriparatide injection), an osteoporosis therapy indicated for certain people at high risk of fracture.

Forteo took in $1.6 billion sales for developer Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) last year, down from $1.7 billion the year before. Many of the US patents for Forteo expired in mid-August 2019, and the product is likely to face increasing competition from competitors.

There are already two biosimilar versions of the therapy on the shelves in Europe, and efforts to block copycats in the USA have been dismissed.