by Guillaume Bietry

PARIS, July 20 (APM) – Generics and biosimilars body Medicines for Europe is campaigning for a smaller price difference between biosimilars and their originator drugs than that between generics and their branded equivalents, president Jacek Glinka has told APM.

About 20 biosimilars have been approved in Europe since 2006, but the optimal price difference – which would bring maximum savings while keeping the market attractive and competitive – is still under discussion.

Manufacturers’ viewpoints diverge, with some ready to accept a bigger discount than that for generics (60% in France) while others would prefer 20%-30%.

Novartis, one of the main players on the market via its subsidiary Sandoz, considers that biosimilars could be 75% cheaper than their reference drugs, saying that whatever might be lost in price terms would be compensated for by volume.

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