By Maria Armental 
 

U.S. health regulators have approved another so-called biosimilar to Roche Holding AG's (ROG.EB) blockbuster breast-cancer drug Herceptin.

Ontruzant, which was developed by South Korea's Samsung Bioepis Co. and would be sold in the U.S. by Merck & Co., is the third Herceptin biosimilar approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Biosimilars, lower-cost copies of complex and often expensive biotech drugs, are a key part of the FDA's push to lower drug prices.

Roche's Herceptin, also known by the generic name trastuzumab, gained FDA approval in 1998.

 

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 18, 2019 15:09 ET (20:09 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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