Clinical development of biosimilars: an evolving landscape

Biosimilars, or similar biological medicinal products, can provide a meaningful option for patients and physicians provided they deliver the therapeutic value of a reference product at a more modest cost. Unlike generic small-molecule drugs that require primarily the demonstration of pharmaceutical equivalence, the complex nature of protein therapeutics warrants a rigorous evaluation of both pharmaceutical and therapeutic equivalence to the reference product in an abbreviated clinical program. Furthermore, the lack of comprehensive structure-activity relationship data increases the burden on appropriately designed human clinical studies with predefined acceptance criteria to demonstrate the absence of clinically meaningful differences between the biosimilar and reference product. Although a number of biosimilar proteins have been approved, especially in Europe, issues on substitutability, extrapolation to other disease indications, and selection of reference standards and comparators, remains to be standardized at a global level.