Merck & Co. and Samsung Bioepis announced today the U.S. launch of Renflexis (infliximab), a biosimilar of Janssen’s Remicade. Renflexis was approved on April 21 by the FDA for all eligible indications. Renflexis will be priced at a 35% discount to the current list price of Remicade (i.e., 65% of Remicade’s list price). For comparison, Pfizer’s Inflectra, another biosimilar to Remicade, launched in November 2016 at 85% of the list price of Remicade, but later dropped to 81% of Remicade’s list price.
Janssen is seeking an injunction to block sales of Renflexis, arguing that it infringes three Janssen patents.