Biosimilars provide new growth options

But copying biologic drugs is much harder than chemical ones. In fact, it is almost impossible to make an exact copy. What companies are producing are types of drugs known as biosimilars.

"A similar trend will be seen with biosimilars," says Christopher Ko, CEO of Samsung Bioepis. Since its inception in 2012 as a division of the South Korean conglomerate, Samsung Bioepis has sought to emerge as a global player in biosimilars.

As of today, there are around 200 biologic drugs on the market. In 2010, global sales of biologic drugs added up to $138 billion. Jenna Oh of Thomson Reuters says that sales could hit $200 billion in 2015 and jump to $253 billion in 2020.

By 2016, many of the best-selling drugs in the world are likely to be cancer drugs or protein-based drugs.

"And I'll tell you, a lot of them are biosimilars," says Paul Bridges, worldwide head at Parexel Consulting.

The potential market for copies of biologic drugs is enormous and this fact has not been lost on drug companies in Asia.

"One of the reasons we went into biosimilars is because of this mega trend," said Ko, but he warned that no-one can predict how big the market will be because the market is not there yet.

The problem with copying biologic drugs is that these types of drugs are made inside living organisms. To oversimplify, they are grown inside tissue cells or microorganisms.

The process is exacting, and replicating it is both difficult and expensive. Ultimately, biosimilars are likely to be cheaper than the original biologic drugs but the price difference is not as big as it is with generics.

Another challenge for biosimilar manufacturers is that understanding and acceptance of these drugs is, for the time being, much smaller than with generics.

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