The month of August saw two new biosimilars launch in Canada:

The first, Ziextenzo, is a biosimilar pegfilgrastim- a long-acting form of recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (r-metHuG-CSF), or filgrastim. It is was approved April 21st of this year by Health Canada to decrease the incidence of infection, as manifested by febrile neutropenia, in patients with non-myeloid malignancies receiving myelosuppressive antineoplastic agents. Neutropenia is one of the most serious side effects of chemotherapy.

The second, Riximyo, is a biosimilar to rituximab, a monoclonal antibody approved for the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), as well as the rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It was approved by Health Canada on April 28th of this year.

Read more about the approvals here.