What is the difference between Truxima and Rituxan?

Truxima (rituximab-abbs) is a biosimilar to Rituxan (rituximab). While both drugs are CD20-directed cytolytic antibodies used to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), Rituxan has additional FDA-approved indications beyond NHL.

What Is a Biosimilar?

Biosimilars are highly similar to an already-approved biological product and have no clinically meaningful differences in terms of safety, purity, and potency.

FDA-Approved Uses: Truxima vs. Rituxan

Truxima and Rituxan belong to the class of drugs called CD20-directed cytolytic antibodies.

Both medications are approved for the treatment of adult patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL):

• Relapsed or refractory, low grade or follicular, CD20-positive B-cell NHL as a single agent.
• Previously untreated follicular, CD20-positive, B-cell NHL in combination with first line chemotherapy and, in patients achieving a complete or partial response to a rituximab product in combination with chemotherapy, as single-agent maintenance therapy.
• Non-progressing (including stable disease), low-grade, CD20-positive, B-cell NHL as a single agent after first-line cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and prednisone (CVP) chemotherapy.
• Previously untreated diffuse large B-cell, CD20-positive NHL in combination with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP) or other anthracycline-based chemotherapy regimens.

Rituxan is additionally indicated for several other medical conditions in adults patients, including:

• Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL):
  • Previously untreated and previously treated CD20-positive CLL in combination with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide (FC).
• Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA):
  • In combination with methotrexate in adult patients with moderately-to severely-active RA who have inadequate response to one or more TNF antagonist therapies.
• Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis (GPA) (Wegener’s Granulomatosis) and Microscopic Polyangiitis (MPA)
  • in combination with glucocorticoids inpatients two years of age and older.
• Pemphigus Vulgaris (PV):
  • Moderate to severe disease in adult patients.

It is also approved to treat children 6 years and older with mature B-cell NHL and mature B-cell acute leukemia.

For more information, see What Are Biosimilars? Top Facts You May Not Know

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