Tomorrow, March, 22, 2022, the FDA will host a public meeting entitled “Final Assessment of the Program for Enhanced Review Transparency and Communication in in the Biosimilar User Fee Act.” As part of the Biosimilar User Fee Act (BsUFA), the FDA contracted with independent third parties to assess the extent…
On February 7, 2022, Biogen Inc. and Xbrane Biopharma AB announced that they had entered into a commercialization and license agreement related to Xcimzane, a certolizumab pegol biosimilar referencing CIMZIA. Under the agreement, Biogen will gain exclusive global regulatory, manufacturing, and commercial rights to Xcimzane, and Xbrane will be responsible…
On January 10, 2022, Alvotech Holdings S.A. (“Alvotech”) and JAMP Pharma Group (“JAMP Pharma”) announced that Health Canada granted marketing authorization to JAMP Pharma for a high-concentration biosimilar to Humira® (adalimumab) developed by Alvotech. The biosimilar, also referred to as AVT02, will be marketed in Canada as SIMLANDI (100 mg/mL…
On December 1, 2021 the government of British Columbia announced that it is further expanding its biosimilar initiative. The statement reported that as of November 30, 2021 an estimated 30,000 patients on the rapid-acting insulin lispro (Humalog) and insulin aspart (NovoRapid) would have six months to transition to the respective…
On October 22, 2021 Roche announced the FDA’s approval of its ranibizumab intravitreal injection, marketed as Susvimo. Susvimo is a refillable ocular implant—requiring refills every six months—that continuously delivers medicine into the eye for the treatment of neovascular or wet age-related macular degeneration, a condition that can cause rapid and…
On September 13, 2021 BeiGene announced the FDA’s acceptance of its BLA for tislelizumab in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). While tislelizumab is already approved for five indications in China, this marks the first ex-China regulatory filing for the biologic. The BLA was filed in collaboration with Novartis and is…
On July 29, 2021, the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) released a statement urging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to prohibit Insurance companies from requiring ophthalmologists to use new biosimilar drugs as alternatives to Avastin for treatment in eye diseases. The statement alleges that certain large healthcare…
On July 1, 2021, twenty-eight patient advocacy groups submitted a letter demonstrating their support for the BIOSIM Act (H.R. 2815). The legislation was introduced on April 22, 2021 with the purpose of increasing Medicare payments for biosimilars for a five-year period. The letter praises the BIOSIM Act as “critical to…
An article published last week in Scientific Reports describes the results of a multicenter prospective study evaluating the safety and efficacy of switching IBD patients from Abbvie’s Humira product to either of two adalimumab biosimilars, ABP501 (Amgen) and SB5 (Samsung Bioepsis). The authors concluded from this study that both biosimilars…
On May 21, 2021, Meiji Seika Pharma Co, Ltd. announced that phase I clinical trials of DMB-3115, its proposed ustekinumab (STELARA®) biosimilar, demonstrated bioequivalence to reference products marketed in Europe and the United States. Meiji is co-developing ustekinumab under a 2011 strategic collaboration partnership agreement with Dong-A Socio Holdings. Phase III…