Last week the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a request for comments on the Trump administration’s plan to lower drug prices. The HHS blueprint to lower drug prices includes improving competition by promoting innovation and competition for biologics. According to HHS, “FDA will issue new policies to improve availability, competitiveness, and adoption of…
Last week, Apotex Australia, an affiliate of the Canadian-based Apotex, Inc., announced a proposed merger of their Australian and New Zealand generic pharmaceutical and over-the-counter (OTC) operations with Arrow Pharmaceutical. This combined operation aims to offer pharmacists, patients and consumers a diverse range of almost 500 products, and permit the…
Earlier this week, Catalent Pharma Solutions and Valerius Biopharma AG jointly announced their collaboration on the manufacture of Valerius’ specialty biosimilar products. According to the press release, Catalent Biologics will provide cell line development and support cGMP manufacturing activities from Phase I through to commercial stages. The collaboration will additionally…
Last week, the Federal Circuit issued a decision in Altaire Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Paragon Bioteck, in which the court held that Altaire had standing to appeal the PTAB’s final written decision in a post-grant review (“PGR”) of Paragon’s U.S. Patent No. 8,859,623 and reversed-in-part and vacated-in-part the PTAB’s Final Written Decision….
As we reported earlier this month, Coherus BioSciences recently resubmitted its application for CHS-1701, a proposed biosimilar to Neulasta® (pegfilgrastim), in response to a Complete Response Letter that it received from the FDA last June. Yesterday, Coherus announced that the FDA has accepted its pegfilgrastim resubmission and that the FDA considered…
On May 11, President Trump delivered remarks about his administration’s new plan to help lower drug prices. The President blamed “soaring drug prices” on “everyone involved in the broken system,” including “the drug makers, insurance companies, distributors, pharmacy benefit managers, and many others,” such as “middlemen,” “special interests” as well…
For just the tenth time since the implementation of the BPCIA, the FDA has approved a biosimilar product. Today, the FDA announced that it has approved Pfizer-subsidiary Hospira’s Retacrit™ (epoetin alfa-epbx) for the treatment of anemia caused by chronic kidney disease, chemotherapy, or use of zidovudine in patients with HIV…
Over the past few weeks, numerous biologics and biosimilar companies released their quarterly earnings for Q1 2018 and held related earnings calls. Below are some highlights: On April 17, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) reported a 22.5% year-over-year (YOY) decline in U.S. sales of Remicade® (infliximab), which it attributed “to increased discounts/rebates,…
Over the past week, biopharmaceutical developers from around the world provided updates on the development and availability of a number of biosimilar products and candidates. Below are some highlights. On May 2, Mundipharma, a global network of independent associated companies, announced that the trastuzumab biosimilar Herzuma® is now available in…
The past week saw further developments in the ongoing patent dispute between Janssen and Defendants Celltrion and Hospira relating to Inflectra® (infliximab-dyyb), a biosimilar of Remicade®. First, on May 4, Janssen and Defendants filed competing motions for summary judgment. Both sets of summary judgment papers are directed to the same issue:…