What happens when patents on blockbuster weight-loss drugs expire? (Nature)

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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02044-x

NEWS
19 June 2024

What happens when patents on blockbuster weight-loss drugs expire?

India and China are vying for market share as the patents on obesity drugs near their expiry.

By Smriti Mallapaty

Blockbuster weight-loss drugs could soon become a lot cheaper — and reach more people — thanks to Chinese and Indian pharmaceutical companies. A long queue of companies is developing copies of the complex biological drugs, and some are racing to create modified or improved versions to compete in the global market.

“There is huge potential for companies from India, China, that can help create access to these drugs,” says Abhijit Zutshi, chief commercial officer of the pharmaceutical giant Biocon, headquartered in Bengaluru, India, who oversees its generics business and is based in Woodbridge, New Jersey.

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Biosimilars bonanza

But the drugs are expensive — a month’s worth of semaglutide or tirzepatide injections can cost upwards of US$1,000. One way that Indian and Chinese pharmaceutical companies plan to slash that price is by developing biosimilars, cheaper versions of expensive brand-name drugs. Unlike generics, which are exact copies of chemically synthesized branded drugs, biosimilars very closely resemble their reference product and are derived from modified living organisms, such as yeast.

Companies are preparing to release biosimilar versions of GLP-1 drugs when patent protections lift in different markets. In China, the patent for liraglutide has already expired, and the one for semaglutide will expire in 2026 in India and China.

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[JT45242]

1. Expensive in the US...

Yes $1000 in the US. But only about $100 a month in Canada.

Unregulated greed is the reason these are so expensive in the US. Big pharma decided that it would rather sell fewer at a ginormous profit and use that money to buy Congress critters and SCOTUS rather than make as many as they can and sell at the Canadian price of $100 per month.

If we regulated pharma and insurance properly in this country, they would be cheaper here. But insurance companies also buy Congress critters and SCOTUS so that they can gamble that the long term cost of obesity will fall on a different company rather than doing the logical thing that reducing long term health risk lowers the risk of the insurance company. But, the insurance companies are betting that the patient will switch jobs or the company will switch plans before the consequences of not using a drug that lowers risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, etc kicks in

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2. Big pharma spent millions on lobbying

Congress to add years to patent laws. Made billions more in profits from that investment.
They spend those profits on advertising and stock buy backs.