Aiming to Expand Availability of Eribulin to Patients in India with Two Brands Halaven and Teceris
Tokyo, September 21, 2019: Eisai Co., Ltd. has announced that Eisai’s subsidiary Eisai Pharmaceuticals India Pvt. Ltd. and Mylan N. V. subsidiary Mylan India have entered into a license agreement to promote and distribute the second brand TECERIS for the anticancer agent eribulin mesylate (eribulin) in India.
Under this agreement, eribulin will be supplied to Mylan India by Eisai India as well as promoted and distributed by Mylan India as TECERIS. Mylan India has a wide portfolio of medicines in oncology and brand building ability in India. Eisai group positions this agreement as an important strategy for expanding access to eribulin following the tiered-pricing model(*) in which the cost burden to patients is differentiated according to income level. Further availability of eribulin to patients all over India is expected by supplying eribulin in two brands, two channels: Halaven by Eisai india and TECERIS by Mylan india.
Eribulin is a novel anticancer agent discovered in-house by Eisai. In India, Eisai is steadily expanding the availability of eribulin to patients since Eisai India has launched eribulin as Halaven and introduced a tiered- pricing model in October 2013. Eribulin’s indication for breast cancer in India is the locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who have progressed after at least one chemotherapeutic regimen for advanced disease. Prior therapy should have included an anthracycline and a taxane in either the adjuvant or metastatic setting unless patients were not suitable for these treatments.
The number of women diagnosed with breast cancer in India has increased in recent years, with an estimated 163,000 new cases of breast cancer and approximately 87,000 related deaths in 2018.1 Breast cancer is now the most frequently diagnosed cancer in Indian women.(1)
Eisai group positions oncology as a key therapeutic area, and is aiming to discover revolutionary new medicines with the potential to cure cancer. In addition, Eisai group will continue to adopt proactive measures aimed at increasing access to its innovative pharmaceutical products in emerging countries and the developing world in order to contribute to an increase in the benefits provided to local patients and their families.
(*) Tiered-Pricing sets the multiple cost burden to patients from full payment by the patient to free of charge in accordance with their income levels. In India, approximate 30% of patients, who have treated with Halaven, used the support program by Tiered-Pricing, and it is assumed that the patients’ access to eribulin was improved by approximate 45% with the program.
