Hospira receives EU approval for biosimilar therapy Inflectra

Hospira has announced that Inflectra, its groundbreaking biosimilar treatment for inflammatory conditions, has been approved by the European Commission.

The drug becomes Europe's first available biosimilar monoclonal antibody therapy and is indicated for sufferers of inflammatory conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis.

Inflectra is a biosimilar medicine to the reference medicinal product Remicade, with clinical trials showing that the new drug can deliver similar quality, efficacy and safety to the original therapy.

It is hoped that the availability of this more affordable product will lead to improvements in patient outcomes, while also reducing the costs associated with care provision.

Dr Stan Bukofzer, corporate vice-president and chief medical officer for Hospira, said: "For over a decade biologic medicines have been pivotal in treating a range of inflammatory conditions, so [this approval] is a major milestone for Inflectra and for the future of biologic therapy."

The manufacturer recently hired comms agency 90TEN Healthcare to handle the European launch of this important new product.