Geared For Upcoming Lantus Price Cut

Biocon Biologics appears confident of its competitive position for Semglee, its interchangeable biosimilar glargine, in the US against the backdrop of the impending sharp drop in the list price of Sanofi’s Lantus (insulin glargine) next year.(Also see "First Interchangeable Biosimilar Launched In US" - Generics Bulletin, 16 November, 2021.)

Shreehas Tambe, CEO and managing director, BBL explained that the company’s insulin had always been priced with the high WAC and the low WAC strategy which allows it to play on both segments.

“It allows us to be in the commercial space with that high rebate opportunity and also those with direct purchases like the hospitals or Veterans Affairs where you have the lower WAC product and we've been always very competitive. So we do not see a challenge because we've always been amongst the lower priced products in the US and quite competitive at that,” Tambe said.

The CEO said that places the company in a good position with the payers given that “everyone else has probably moved to a lower WAC position and we would have that opportunity”.

“But we really leave it to the buyer and the channel that is procuring products from us to make that decision. We've been basically pricing it in such a way that every stakeholder in the US market has an opportunity and we have our offering for all these channels,” he said in response to an analyst’s query.

Viatris and Biocon had in 2021 launched Semglee (insulin glargine-yfgn) and its unbranded insulin glargine biosimilars in the US at two different prices.

Tambe, though, refrained from commenting specifically on the competitive play in the US maintaining that lot of that has also to do with the way the overall US system and the market is structured and how the compensations are passed on back from CMS. Experts have recently highlighted how the “big three” US PBMs’ standard formularies have a varied coverage approach for Lantus and its competitors.(Also see "Even As PBMs Face Reckoning, Formulary Exclusions Rise Again In 2023" - Pink Sheet, 10 May, 2023.)

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