Roche accused of sabotaging competitor's copycat biologic

Russian drug manufacturer Biocad has launched legal action against pharmaceutical giant Roche, accusing it of "sabotaging competition" by "deliberately" hiking prices in the US, while dropping the prices of Avastin, Herceptin, and Rituxan/MabThera in Russia, where Biocad was its selling biosimilar drugs. The lawsuit, filed recently in New York, claimed Roche and its Genentech unit were "engaged in predatory pricing" to prevent Biocad from entering the market. Biologic spending was $128m last year, and it is predicted that biosimilars could save Europe and the US between $50bn and $110bn by 2020.

As drug makers jockey for an edge in the burgeoning market for biosimilar medicines, a Russian company called Biocad is accusing Roche — one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturers — of deliberately setting low prices in Russia and using other allegedly illegal tactics to sabotage competition.

Among the steps Roche took to undercut Biocad was to deliberately drop prices for three cancer medicines — Avastin, Herceptin, and Rituxan/MabThera — in Russia, where the company said it sells biosimilar versions, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month in federal court in New York. At the same time, Biocad alleged Roche and its Genentech unit raised prices in the United States to compensate for those price cuts.

advertisement

“While Roche and Genentech keep raising prices in the US, they engage in predatory pricing in Russia, where (they) sell such drugs at a loss — all to destroy (Biocad) and prevent it from entering the US market with cheaper biosimilars,” the Russian company contended. For instance, Biocad claimed Roche sold 100 milligrams of Avastin to its exclusive distributor for 20 percent less than the officially declared price.