As we previously reported, in the Amgen v. Mylan litigation concerning Mylan’s FULPHILA (pegfilgrastim-jmdb), a biosimilar of NEULASTA, Amgen has asserted that Mylan infringes two protein purification process patents: U.S. Patent Nos. 8,273,707 and 9,643,997. Early this month, the district court requested the parties’ positions with regard to the ’707…
Below are highlights of biosimilar development news from the past couple of weeks: On August 5, Revance Therapeutics indicated on its quarterly earnings call that it has continued to have discussions with its collaborator Mylan about their proposed biosimilar of BOTOX (onabotulinumtoxinA) since their initial advisory meeting with the FDA…
Today, in the Immunex v. Sandoz BPCIA litigation, a District of New Jersey judge held that U.S. Patent No. 8,063,182, related to “the fusion protein etanercept, the active ingredient in Immunex’s product Enbrel®” and U.S. Patent No. 8,163,522, related to Enbrel®’s method of manufacture, are not invalid. As we previously reported,…
On July 31, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) outlining proposed increases in patent fees in a number of categories. In particular, America Invents Act (AIA) fees are subject to a 26% increase, substantially more than the 5% increase in…
As we previously reported, Genentech has appealed the Delaware district court’s denial of its preliminary injunction motion that sought to bar sales of Amgen’s KANJINTI (trastuzumab-anns) biosimilar in the United States. In conjunction with its appeal, Genentech also asked the Federal Circuit (1) to issue an injunction against Amgen pending…
On July 31, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a Safe Importation Action Plan (“Action Plan”) created with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to “allow the importation of certain prescription drugs originally intended for foreign markets,” particularly Canada. According to the HHS Secretary Alex Azar, “[the…
In a precedential decision last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the use of IPR proceedings for patents issued prior to the enactment of the America Invents Act (AIA) was not an unconstitutional taking under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In that July 30,…
As we previously reported, Amgen commercially launched two biosimilars in the United States earlier this month: KANJINTI™ (trastuzumab-anns), a biosimilar to Herceptin®; and MVASI® (bevacizumab-awwb), a biosimilar to Avastin®. Amgen’s launch announcement on July 18, 2019 came shortly after a Delaware federal district court denied Genentech’s requests for a temporary…
Mylan N.V. and Pfizer Inc. recently announced that Mylan and Upjohn, Pfizer’s off-patent branded and generic business, will combine to form a new company. According to the press release, each Mylan share would be converted into one share of the new company. Pfizer shareholders will own 57% of the combined new company,…
On July 29, Sandoz filed a response to Amgen’s petition for rehearing en banc of the Federal Circuit’s decision affirming summary judgment of non-infringement of Amgen’s U.S. Patent No. 8,940,878 (“the ‘878 patent”). The ‘878 patent concerns a protein purification method that is allegedly used in the manufacture of Amgen’s NEUPOGEN…