On June 27, 2019, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance four bills, summarized below, to the Senate floor. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham issued a statement that the bills “each in their own way will lower the cost of prescription drugs.” S. 1227, the Prescription Pricing for the…
On June 28, 2019, Samsung Bioepis and Genentech filed a joint stipulation of dismissal of their BPCIA patent litigation concerning ONTRUZANT (trastuzumab-dttb), Samsung Bioepis’s biosimilar of HERCEPTIN that received FDA-approval earlier this year. According to the stipulation, the parties “have entered into a settlement agreement, and mutually agree to voluntarily dismiss…
Today, June 28, 2019, the FDA approved Pfizer’s aBLA for ZIRABEV (bevacizumab-bvzr), a biosimilar of Genentech’s AVASTIN. According to its approved package insert, ZIRABEV is indicated for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer in combination with certain types of chemotherapy as described on the label. ZIRABEV is the twenty-first biosimilar…
U.S.-based AbbVie, Inc. has reached a deal to acquire Irish pharmaceutical company Allergan PLC for about $63 billion, according to an AbbVie press release from Tuesday. The “definitive transaction agreement” includes both cash and stock. According to the press release, it is expected that, immediately after the closing of the…
On June 7, 2019, Amgen filed a petition for rehearing en banc of the Federal Circuit’s recent affirmance of summary judgment of non-infringement in favor of Sandoz in the BPCIA litigation regarding Sandoz’s ZARXIO (filgrastim-sndz) biosimilar and pegfilgrastim biosimilar candidate. As we previously reported, on May 8, 2019, a Federal…
Below are some highlights of recent news in biosimilar and follow-on biologic development: On June 14, Sandoz announced positive clinical study data regarding HYRIMOZ, its biosimilar of HUMIRA (adalimumab). According to Sandoz’s press release, data from a 48-week phase 3 clinical study demonstrated that switching from HUMIRA to HYRIMOZ provides…
On June 11, Representatives Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) and Doug Collins (R-Georgia) introduced a bipartisan bill with the stated purpose of addressing the rising cost of prescription drugs. According to the press release, the “Terminating the Extension of Rights Misappropriated (TERM) Act of 2019,” H.R. 3199, would “significantly limit[] the…
On April 29, 2019, Pfizer answered Genentech’s complaint alleging infringement of 22 patents based on Pfizer’s submission of an aBLA seeking U.S. FDA approval of a biosimilar of Avastin® (bevacizumab). In its answer, Pfizer denied Genentech’s allegations of patent infringement and violations of the BPCIA’s patent dance procedures. Pfizer also…
Today, June 13, 2019, the U.S. FDA approved Amgen’s aBLA for KANJINTI (trastuzumab-anns), a biosimilar of Genentech’s HERCEPTIN. According to its approved package insert, KANJINTI, like its reference product, is indicated for the treatment of HER2 overexpressing breast cancer and the treatment of HER2 overexpressing metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction…
On June 8, 2019, Fresenius Kabi filed a petition for inter partes review challenging the validity of U.S. Patent No. 9,643,997, entitled “Capture purification processes for proteins expressed in a non-mammalian system.” The challenged claims in the patent, owned by Amgen Inc., relate to processes for purifying recombinant proteins expressed in a…