Though still years behind Europe in the availability of cheaper copycat versions of some of the world’s most expensive prescriptions, savings on expensive drugs derived from biotechnology are inching closer to reality in the United States. Hospira, based in Lake Forest, Ill., which has been selling cheaper versions of expensive biologic drugs in Europe for nearly four years, said on Monday that it would begin a final-stage clinical trial in the United States by the end of this year of its “biosimilar” version of Amgen’s brand-name Epogen in patients with renal dysfunction who have anemia.
