Hospira’s Inflectra shows similar efficacy to Remicade in new study

Hospira has reported data from an independent clinical study showing patients with rheumatic diseases experienced comparable clinical effectiveness and safety after switching from Remicade to Inflectra.

Inflectra is the first biosimilar monoclonal antibody approved in the EU and is based on Remicade as its original reference product. The new study compared outcomes in 39 patients who were originally treated with Remicade before making a switch to Inflectra.

It was shown that patient symptoms and disease activity were similar before and after the switch between the two treatments, with no immediate safety signals being observed.

Hospira's drug is approved as a treatment option for people suffering from inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis who are currently receiving stable treatment with Remicade.

It is also suitable for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and plaque psoriasis.

Paul Greenland, vice-president for biologics at Hospira, said: "Hospira is committed to delivering high-quality biosimilar medicines at a lower cost than the reference product, to increase patient access to biologic medicines."