If Biosimilars Are Struggling, Someone Forgot to Tell Coherus BioSciences
The rise of biosimilars, the name given to generic versions of biologic drugs such as monoclonal antibodies and granulocyte colony-stimulating growth factors, hasn't quite lived up to the hype in recent years.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved 24 biosimilars, but many haven't made it to the market yet. Some of the companies that have launched balked at offering payer discounts and rebates, which can sometimes make the copycat drugs more expensive than the innovator drugs they aspire to replace. And doctors sometimes hesitate to switch patients to biosimilars because they technically aren't exact copies of innovator drugs (proteins are more difficult to exactly replicate than small molecule drugs produced with chemistry).
But Coherus BioSciences (NASDAQ: CHRS) hasn't run into those problems with the market launch of its first biosimilar, which is blowing past expectations and enabling the business to invest in its future. How much higher can it soar -- and can it take the company's small-cap stock with it?
Source Fool.com
