The market is biologics may exceed 250 bln USD by 2020. Biosimilars, copies of biologics, are becoming more popular. According to Reuters 245 companies worldwide are currently developing 700 biosimilars.

Biggest players are Teva, Sandoz, Pfizer, and Amgen. Biosimilars popularity can be explained by their profitability: 6 out of 10 top selling drugs in the world are biologics. These very same products are going to lose patent protection in the near future.

Their biosimilars can be then be launched. There are difficulties when it comes to marketing biosimilars: it is almost impossible to make a biosimilar identical to the original biologic, and there is no clearly defined registration procedure for biosimilars.

All of this raises a lot of suspicions among prescribers. At the same time, the price of a biosimilar is only 20-30% lower than that of an original, which does not provide a big advantage.