A couple of updates on Amgen v. Hospira (epoetin alfa): Amgen has requested that the district court (D. Del., J. Andrews) grant it leave to file a second amended complaint “to add three additional defendants” who, Amgen alleges, “have directly or indirectly infringed Amgen’s patent-in-suit, United States Patent No. 5,756,349.” Meanwhile, Hospira…
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the Senate will not vote on the TPP agreement this year, seemingly foreclosing the possibility of passage during President Obama’s tenure. Administration officials continue to push for the deal and hold out hope as Treasury Secretary Jack Lew noted in comments at the Brookings Institute. Meanwhile,…
Yesterday, Mylan filed two petitions for inter partes review of Genentech’s U.S. Patent No. 6,407,213. According the petitions, the patent is directed to humanized antibodies, and Mylan expects that Genentech will rely on data regarding Herceptin® (trastuzumab) in its arguments regarding secondary considerations. We will continue to monitor and report…
A recent meta-analysis investigated several factors impacting prescription drug costs in the United States. Doctors associated with the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School authored the report. Funding was provided by a grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, with additional support from the Engelberg Foundation. The…
The FDA today approved Sandoz’s application for a biosimilar version of Amgen’s Enbrel product (etanercept). Sandoz’s biosimilar is called Erelzi. It is the first biosimilar etanercept approved by FDA, and the third product to be approved under the BPCIA’s abbreviated approval pathway for biosimilars (first was Sandoz’s Zarxio (filgrastim)…
As we posted previously, the District Court in Janssen v. Celltrion has ruled that the ‘471 patent is invalid for obviousness-type double patenting on the two grounds raised in the defendants’ motions for summary judgment on that patent. The defendants last week moved for an entry of final judgment on the plaintiffs’ infringement allegations for the…
Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) announced that Brenzys, an etanercept biosimilar, “could be marked as equivalent” to the branded antibody Enbrel on the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). Considering the clinical evidence presented, PBAC recommended that there was “comparative safety and effectiveness of Brenzys and Enbrel.” Therefore, by substituting…
Yesterday, Celltrion filed a petition for inter partes review of Genentech’s U.S. Patent No. 7,976,838, which is directed to the use of rituximab to treat rheumatoid arthritis. We will continue to monitor and report on updates for IPR2016-01667 and will post key documents on our IPR tracker page.
We have previously reported on the complicated naming issues surrounding biosimilar products and how biological qualifiers, such as three or four-letter codes, should be added to distinguish between them. However, the naming of the original biologic drug product is well established, as outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO), and…
In a stipulation filed yesterday in Janssen v. Celltrion, Celltrion has agreed not to sell its Remicade biosimilar in the U.S. for use by doctors or patients before October 3, 2016, and the parties have agreed to dismiss all claims and defenses related to Defendants’ alleged violation of the BPCIA’s 180-day notice of commercial marketing provision (42…