EU Approved Since 2013, Hospira Launched Inflectra® Biosimilar To Merck's Remicade® -- In EU Today

Well, we all knew this day was coming -- we said so, with specificity as to the date, back in September of 2014. And yet it has taken a bit of a spell to get all the ducks in a row, at Hospira.

The $2.4 billion a year Merck ex-US franchise will almost certainly see some near term and substantial erosion -- in the European Union in 2015. And Hospira -- the Abbott spinoff, just now being acquired by Pfizer -- will see a very strong revenue ramp on this product. So it goes. Here is the Zack's research note, on today's events -- across the pond:

. . . .Hospira announced that it has launched Inflectra^® (infliximab), the first biosimilar monoclonal antibody, in major European markets. Inflectra is approved for inflammatory indications including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, adult and pediatric Crohn's disease, adult and pediatric ulcerative colitis and plaque psoriasis.

Inflectra is a biosimilar to the reference product, Johnson & Johnson/Merck’s (JNJ/MRK) Remicade (infliximab). Merck recorded Remicade revenues of $2.4 billion in 2014 in Europe, Russia and Turkey. . . .

More background here (for more, dozens more, search "Remicade" in the upper left box). And. . . I am sure ole' Bob Parkinson is glaring at not so old Ian Read now. But Mr. Frazier is likely unruffled -- by either of them.