Russian biotechnology company BIOCAD announced plans to enter the EU market

During the 30th anniversary CPhI Worldwide exhibition, BIOCAD employees held more than 60 meetings with representatives of the pharmaceutical industry in Europe, China, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and Latin America. At a large-scale international venue that brought together more than 60 000 people from all over the world, BIOCAD introduced two new original drugs based on monoclonal antibodies – an interleukin-17 inhibitor (inn – netakimab) and a PD-1 inhibitor (inn – progolimab).

Netakimab was registered under the trade name Efleira® in Russia for the treatment of psoriasis in April 2019, and in July it was already approved by the commission of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation for inclusion in the essential drug list (EDL). Investments in the project amounted to 9 million US dollars. The registration of the immuno-oncological drug progolimab is expected in the first quarter of 2020, investment in the project exceeded 11 million US dollars.

Also at the CPhI BIOCAD publicly announced plans to introduce netakimab and prololimab to the European market and start of the clinical trials in Europe. The company has already received permission to conduct an international multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of prololimab for non-small cell lung cancer in Slovakia and Hungary. The study will include at least 292 patients who will be recruited within a period of 12 months in European Union, Russian Federation, and China. At this stage, the company plans to invest more than 25 million euros in the clinical trial needed to bring the drug to the markets of China and the EU. Obtaining permission to conduct clinical trials of netakimab in Europe is expected in 2020.

“We have come a long way to start clinical trials of first two Russian innovative drugs based on monoclonal antibodies in the European Union and China, – Oleg Pavlovsky, Vice President of Marketing at BIOCAD says. – This is a real breakthrough not only for our company, but also for the entire Russian pharmaceutical industry. I am sure that the drugs will take their rightful place in medicine practice all around the world”.

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BIOCAD is a leading Russian innovative company that integrates a world-class R&D center, cutting-edge pharmaceutical and biotech production, and an international system of preclinical and clinical studies. It is one of the few full-cycle drug manufacturing companies covering activities from molecule search to mass production and marketing support. BIOCAD’s products are designed to treat some of the most complex diseases such as cancer, HIV, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, etc. The company employs more than 2 600 people, 40% of them are scientists and researchers.