BOSTON, Massachusetts- On October 20-22, 2014, ASBM members John Lewis and Andrew Spiegel attended the 15th Annual Business of Biosimilars Conference held at the Omni Park Hotel in Boston.
On day one of the conference, John Lewis from ACRO moderated a panel titled “Looking at the Commercial Realities of the Biosimilar Market”. Topics discussed included how many companies the market can truly bear, what is it going to take to be successful after overcoming the hurdles of development, accounting for the patient/provider/payer perspectives, and educated attendees on how to make choices about the next MaBs in pipeline. Panelists included: Carsten Brockmeyer, CEO, Formycon AG; Mohammed Ladha, Global Biologics Marketing, Hospira, and Yariv Hefez; Vice President Business Development, Portfolio Management Strategy and Partnering, Biosimilars Unit, Merck Serono.
On the 2nd day of the conference, Andrew Spiegel from the Global Colon Cancer Association joined an expert panel including Bruce A. Leicher, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Michael Malecki, Director, (Biosimilars) Research and Development Policy, Amgen. The panel focused on Biosimilar policies and adoption. Issues discussed included an update on State substitution laws & interchangeability, naming and whether data, reimbursement, cost, payor controls or other factors will drive the adoption of Biosimilars.
