As previously reported, in December 2018, the District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Texas v. United States issued an order declaring that the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional, that the remaining provisions of the ACA are not severable from the mandate provision,…
As we have reported here and here, over the past couple of years Mylan has filed a number of IPR petitions challenging a total of seven of Sanofi-Aventis’s patents related to Lantus® (insulin glargine injection). On April 2, 2019, the PTAB granted institution of two petitions (IPR2018-01675 and IPR2018-01676) challenging…
Yesterday, Immunex, Amgen, and Hoffmann-LaRoche (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) filed a complaint in the District of New Jersey against Samsung Bioepis alleging patent infringement under the BPCIA based on Samsung Bioepis’ submission of an aBLA for a biosimilar of ENBREL® (etanercept). As we reported yesterday, Samsung Bioepis recently received FDA-approval for that product,…
April has seen a flurry of biosimilar-related appellate activity before the Federal Circuit. Below are some highlights. The parties in the Amgen v. Hospira BPCIA litigation concerning Hospira’s RETACRIT (epoetin alfa-epbx) biosimilar concluded appellate briefing this month. As we previously reported, Hospira is appealing the district court’s adverse judgment that…
The U.S. FDA has approved ETICOVO™ (etanercept-ykro), Samsung Bioepis’s biosimilar of ENBREL®, for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis in patients aged 2 years or older, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and plaque psoriasis in patients aged 4 years or older. These are the same indications for which…
Earlier this month, Alvotech announced that it entered into an agreement with Fuji Pharma, giving Fuji Pharma the exclusive right to commercialize its biosimilar of Stelara® (ustekinumab) in Japan. The press release states that, in exchange for developing and providing Fuji Pharma with a commercial supply of its ustekinumab biosimilar, Alvotech will…
As we previously reported, on January 24, 2019, Coherus filed a complaint against Amgen in the District of Delaware alleging that Amgen’s adalimumab product for sale in Europe, Amgevita™, infringes three Coherus formulation patents related to adalimumab because Amgen allegedly manufactures its European product in the United States. As we also reported, Coherus amended its…
U.S. Patent No. 9,856,287, which is directed to a protein refolding method, is one of the patents-in-suit in the pending Amgen v. Adello (filgrastim) BPCIA litigation and the sole patent-in-suit in the pending Amgen v. Apotex (filgrastim and pegfilgrastim) BPCIA litigation. As we previously reported, in November 2018, Adello and…
On April 15, 2019, the parties filed their opening claim construction briefs (Amgen’s Brief; Adello’s Brief) in the Amgen v. Adello BPCIA litigation concerning Adello’s aBLA for a biosimilar of Neupogen® (filgrastim). The patents at issue are U.S. Patent Nos. 8,940,878; 9,643,997; 8,952,138; and 9,856,287, each generally directed to the production of proteins in…
Alexion’s Soliris® (eculizumab) is a monoclonal antibody for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS). Soliris® has already been approved in the U.S., EU, and Japan as a first line treatment. Last week, Russia approved the launch of an eculizumab biosimilar developed by Generium,…