On January 11, 2018, Celltrion and Teva filed two lawsuits against Genentech in the District Court for the Northern District of California. Case No. 3:18-cv-00274 relates to Celltrion’s Herzuma®, its trastuzumab biosimilar. According to the complaint, Celltrion and Teva seek a declaratory judgment of non-infringement, invalidity, and/or unenforceability of 38…
We previously reported on Genentech’s complaint in the District of Delaware alleging that Amgen’s MVASI™ (bevacizumab-awwb) infringes over twenty Genentech patents and Amgen’s motion to transfer that complaint to the Central District of California. Today Amgen filed its reply (redacted) in support of transfer. In its reply, Amgen addresses Genentech’s…
As we previously reported, on ex parte reexamination, the Examiner rejected all claims of U.S. Patent No. 6,284,471, a patent covering Janssen’s Remicade® (infliximab), as invalid for obviousness-type double patenting (“OTDP”). The USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board affirmed the rejection and Janssen appealed the PTAB’s decision to the Federal Circuit. …
This month the Brazilian Society of Clinical Oncology (SBOC) published a position paper on approval and use issues concerning biosimilars in oncology. The paper, published in the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, discusses “aspects related to definition, labeling/nomenclature, extrapolation, interchangeability, switching, automatic substitution, clinical standards on safety and…
South Korea’s Alteogen announced that its aflibercept biosimilar ALT-L9 had demonstrated similarity to the originator with no significant side effects in Michigan-based non-clinical trials. Aflibercept, known commercially as Eylea®, is sold by Regeneron for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of blindness among the elderly….
Last Friday, Japanese company Mochida Pharmaceutical with Korean company LG Chem announced that it has received sales approval from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare on its etanercept biosimilar (marketed by Amgen as ENBREL®) for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis. LG Chem has a…
As we previously reported, on October 6, 2017, Amgen and Genentech filed separate lawsuits regarding Amgen’s bevacizumab biosimilar (MVASI®), with Amgen filing for declaratory judgment in C.D. Cal. of non-infringement, invalidity, and unenforceability of 27 patents, and Genentech filing a complaint for infringement of 24 patents in Delaware and a…
A research letter published by the British Journal of Dermatology from investigators in Samsung Bioepis’s biosimilar etanercept (SB4) clinical trials reports that, in addition to therapeutic equivalence between SB4 and reference etanercept (Enbrel), SB4 has been found to be less immunogenic than reference etanercept. The letter notes that injection site…
Sandoz, a division of Novartis, announced on Tuesday that the FDA has accepted for review its BLA under the 351(k) pathway for a biosimilar candidate to AbbVie’s Humira (adalimumab). According to the press release, adalimumab “is indicated for the treatment of a number of inflammatory diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, plaque psoriasis,…
As we previously reported, Genentech has filed two pending cases (Case Nos. 1:17-cv-01407 and 1:17-cv-01471) in the District of Delaware related to Amgen’s proposed Mvasi (bevacizumab-awwb), a biosimilar of Genentech’s Avastin. On December 6, 2017, Genentech filed a sealed amended and supplemental complaint in Case No. 1:17-cv-01407, and on December 13, Genentech filed a redacted version. Last month Amgen…