China-made cancer PD-1 drug will not be discounted in USAOctober 30, 2023 - For the first China-made PD-1 inhibitor to receive FDA approval, Coherus BioSciences “will not engage in heavily discounted pricing,” the company’s CEO Denny Lanfear said during an investor call Friday. The call followed the FDA’s long-delayed approval for Coherus’ Junshi Biosciences-partnered toripalimab for recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Coherus plans to officially launch the drug, branded as Loqtorzi, in the first quarter of 2024 and will share the exact price around that time.
The nod came nearly five years after toripalimab became the first domestic anti-PD-1 drug to gain approval in China. The indication was for previously treated melanoma.
These pricing dynamics in China gave industry watchers hope that the China-made PD-1s would be cheap when they eventually reached the U.S. While six PD-1 inhibitors have been available on the U.S. market before Loqtorzi, they all bear annual list prices above $150,000.
While a “heavily discounted” price is off the table at Coherus, it remains to be seen where the company will place Loqtorzi among its competitors. As a seller of biosimilars, Coherus has some knowledge about navigating a market of multiple similar products. With more than a dozen products approved, China’s PD-1/L1 market has become an intense marketplace.
Coherus has received “significant incoming interest from potential partners” on Loqtorzi, Lanfear said. Coherus is pursuing potential collaborations with T-cell bispecifics and antibody-drug conjugates, with the goal to complete some of those conversations by mid-2024, he added.
[ This development should spur BigPharma onwards towards combining their immune checkpoint inhibitors (anti-PD-1) with novel biologics like pelareorep in the United States, Europe, and the ROW, in BigPharmas continuing effort to offer a unique/effective drug treatment for cancer diseases states with unmet treatment needs, while maintainingor improving on the checkpoint inhibitors (anti-PD-1) FDA market exclusivity ]
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/first-china-made-pd-1-approved-fda-coherus-renounces-heavily-discounted-pricing-junshis