In India, breast cancer treatment to become more affordable

Indian pharmaceutical company Biocon Ltd has announced that it will begin selling a generic version of the breast cancer drug Herceptin to patients in India in February, a move that promises to make breast cancer treatment more accessible in a region where such a diagnosis often spells financial doom.

Breast cancer is the second most common form of cancer diagnosis in women living in India. Biocon's new drug, called CANMAb, treats an aggressive form of breast cancer known as HER2-positive. 

About 150,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer annually in India, according to Biocon, and 25 percent of that number are of the aggressive HER2-positive form. 

The new drug is about 25 percent cheaper than similar drugs in the Indian market, according to Indian science publication Biospectrum. 

While one fifth of all new global breast cancer cases are diagnosed in India, medical treatment remains beyond reach for many patients there. 

Nearly 45 percent of families with one cancer patient face catastrophic expenditure in India, and about 25 percent are pushed below the poverty line, according to science and medical publisher PLOS.

Roche, the company that manufactures Herceptin, decided not to pursue a patent application for its drug in India, paving the way for generic drugmakers to produce cheaper copies, known as biosimilars because they are not identical to the original drug.

Global sales for Herceptin were valued at about $6.4 billion in 2012, including about $21 million in India, Biocon said.

Banglore-based Biocon, known for manufacturing affordable drugs to treat various diseases, jointly developed biosimilar trastuzumab with U.S.-based Mylan Inc.

Amel Ahmed contributed to this report, with wire services.