From insulin to vaccines and cancer therapies , biologic medicines have a huge impact on healthcare , and it ’ s Alvotech ’ s mission to make such medicines more affordable and more widely available
ALVOTECH
From insulin to vaccines and cancer therapies , biologic medicines have a huge impact on healthcare , and it ’ s Alvotech ’ s mission to make such medicines more affordable and more widely available
Most businesses have a mission , but not all missions are equal . Alvotech ’ s mission is to improve patient lives through broadened access to biosimilars . The company was founded in Iceland in 2013 and it employs an integrated business model , from research and development ( R & D ) through production . Alvotech is fully integrated and fully focused on biosimilars .
For the non-biochemists among us , let ’ s turn to an expert to learn what a biosimilar is : Gerhard Helmerich , Head of Global Supply Chain at Alvotech . “ To understand biosimilars you first have to understand biologic medicines . These are generally large , complex molecules that are produced through biotechnology in a living system , such as a microorganism , plant or animal cell .” These medicines differ from smallmolecule drugs , which are chemically synthesised . Examples of small molecule drugs include typical ‘ medicine cabinet ’ treatments , such as aspirin and paracetamol .
“ Biosimilars are more difficult to characterise than small molecule drugs ,” says Helmerich , “ because of inherent variations present in biological products .” This natural variation is why it is not possible to create an exact copy , or a generic version , of a biologic , as is the case for smallmolecule drugs . But what can be created is a highly similar version of a licensed biologic
34 February 2022