Sandoz wins award for successful US filing of filgrastim

Sandoz has been presented with the award for biosimilars initiative of the year by Generics Bulletin, a newsletter covering the global generics industry.

The firm earned the accolade after its drug filgrastim, also known as G-CSF, was accepted for regulatory review by the US Food and Drug Administration earlier this year. This made Sandoz the first company to have a filing accepted under the new biosimilar pathway created in the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009.

Filgrastim is already marketed under the brand name Zarzio in more than 30 countries, including the EU, where its market share has outstripped that of its reference product.

In addition to this accolade, Sandoz also achieved top-three positions in the company of the year, American company of the year and innovation of the year awards categories.

The firm enjoys a market share of more than 50 percent for all biosimilars approved in the highly-regulated markets of Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia. Currently the second-largest generics player in the world, it outperformed the market in all regions in 2013, a trend that is expected to continue this year.