Momentum is building for Eli Lilly’s Lantus biosimilar. Bloomberg reported that the Indiana drugmaker expects to launch its lookalike diabetes drug in the EU by May, just as the Lantus patent protections wear off.
A patent lawsuit is keeping Lilly’s lookalike off the US market for now, but Sanofi, Lantus’s manufacturer, is battling for patients, even without Lilly’s US approval.
This is despite Wednesday’s news that the FDA greenlighted Sanofi’s Toujeo. The Diabetic Investor’s publisher, David Kliff, told the Wall Street Journal that Sanofi is going to have to convince payers that the newer, pricier medication is worth covering.
He also said Sanofi is going to have to court doctors because Lantus and Toujeo do not seem clinically different.
