Herceptin biosimilar may broaden access to treatment

A new version of the blockbuster cancer drug Herceptin (trastuzumab) is just as good at treating early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer and has similar levels of side-effects, signalling an inexpensive way to fund the drug as Herceptin’s drug patent ends. This is according to an international phase III clinical trial published in The Lancet Oncology (Published Online June 4, 2017, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(17)30434-5) and presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference last month. The high cost of trastuzumab places a burden on healthcare systems and limits global access to treatment. The new drug, called CT-P6, has the potential to broaden…