Current Perspectives on Biosimilars and Impact of Biosimilars in Supportive Care in Breast Cancer

Abstract

Biopharmaceuticals are medicines whose active drug substance is made by living cells. Copies of these drugs, called Biosimilars are not identical to their reference drug and therefore specific regulatory requirements for registration apply. Whereas pharmaceutical quality evaluation requires a full dossier and a detailed comparative analysis to the reference drug, non-clinical and clinical requirements are much less extensive compared to the requirements for an innovator. Limited clinical experience and their complex nature exclude biosimilars from being considered interchangeable with the reference drug. The utilization of trastuzumab biosimilar medications is of particular interest in HER2-positive breast cancer as these drugs have the potential for cost savings and increased utilization/access to HER2 targeted therapy in both early stage and metastatic HER2-positive breast cancers. Five trastuzumab biosimilars: MYL-1401O (Ogivri), CT-P6 (Herzuma), SB3 (Ontruzant), PF-05280014 (Trazimera), and ABP980 (Kanjinti), have now been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in HER2-positive breast cancers. This review provides an overview of these agents with special consideration of the development and approval process, including available clinical data results for these trastuzumab biosimilars.