On September 27, 2024, Formycon AG (“Formycon”) and its commercialization partner Fresenius Kabi (“Fresenius”) jointly announced that the European Commission (EC) has issued a marketing authorization for FYB202/OTULFI™ (ustekinumab-aauz), a biosimilar to STELARA®. FYB202/OTULFI™ is an interleukin-12 and interleukin-23 antibody and was approved for moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease,…
On September 19, 2024, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) adopted a positive opinion for Sandoz’s aflibercept biosimilar AFQLIR. On September 20, 2024, Samsung and Biogen announced that the CHMP also adopted a positive opinion for their aflibercept biosimilar OPUVIZ. AFQLIR and OPUVIZ…
Approval of Accord’s Trastuzumab Biosimilar: On September 18, 2024, Accord announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a 420 mg dosage of HERCESSI (trastuzumab-strf), a biosimilar to Genentech’s HERCEPTIN (trastuzumab), to treat HER2-overexpressing breast and gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. As we previously reported, HERCESSI was approved earlier…
On August 15, 2024, Alvotech and Advanz Pharma announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has accepted a Marketing Authorization Application for AVT06, Alvotech’s biosimilar of low dose (2 mg) EYLEA (aflibercept). Alvotech states that it expects that the process to obtain final market authorization could be completed by the…
On July 9, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) released an interim report describing their ongoing study of pharmacy benefit managers (“PBMs”) and their impact on access to and affordability of medicines. According to the FTC, “PBMs are at the center of the complex pharmaceutical distribution chain that delivers a wide…
On April 1, 2024, the Federal Circuit released its opinion in Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. et al v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. et al., affirming the district court’s finding that certain claims were not indefinite and remanding to the district court to reevaluate its obviousness decision. The Federal Circuit’s analysis provides…
On February 22, 2024, Artiva announced that the FDA has granted Fast Track designation to Artiva’s AlloNK (AB-101) for the treatment of lupus nephritis in combination with rituximab or obinutuzumab. AlloNK is an allogeneic, off-the shelf, NK cell therapy that is not genetically modified and designed to enhance the antibody-dependent…
On January 22, 2024, Sandoz announced its plans to acquire the U.S. biosimilar ranibizumab CIMERLI (ranibizumab-eqrn) from Coherus BioSciences, Inc. (“Coherus”) for an upfront cash purchase payment of USD 170 million. The acquisition includes a biologics license application, product inventory, ophthalmology sales and field reimbursement talent, as well as access…
On January 10, 2024, the USPTO published guidelines for assessing enablement in view of Amgen v. Sanofi and other recent court cases (“the Guidelines”). The Guidelines state that they are not intended to “announce any major changes to USPTO practice or procedure” but instead “incorporat[e] guidance from the Amgen decision…
On January 23, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) issued its decision granting the USPTO’s request to remand Xencor’s appeal of the rejection of U.S. Patent App. No 16/803,690 (“’690 patent application”) back to the USPTO. The USPTO requested remand so that the USPTO’s…