On October 5, Celltrion Healthcare Co. announced that it has signed a contract with Ventegra, a major U.S. Medical Benefits Manager (MBM) “who administers pharmacy benefits through its Pharmacy Services Administration (PSA) model that has been effectively displacing traditional PBM’s.” According to the press release, YUFLYMA (adalimumab-aaty) will be a…
Meitheal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Meitheal”) has entered into an exclusive licensing deal with Tonghua Dongbao Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (“THDB”) to market three insulin biosimilars (insulin aspart, insulin lispro, and insulin glargine) in the United States. The agreement grants Meitheal and its parent company, Nanjing King-Friend Biochemical Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (“NKF”), exclusive…
Below we provide an update on several ophthalmic anti-VEGF therapeutics currently being studied in clinical trials. EYLEA® HD (Aflibercept, 8 mg) Regeneron announced positive two-year (96 weeks) results from its PULSAR trial investigating Eylea® HD (aflibercept, 8 mg) with 12- and 16-week dosing regimens compared to EYLEA® (aflibercept, 2 mg)…
FDA grants interchangeable designation to Pfizer’s adalimumab biosimilar – On October 5, 2023, Pfizer Inc. announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated ABRILADA (adalimumab-afzb) as an interchangeable biosimilar to HUMIRA (adalimumab). ABRILADA was originally approved by the FDA in November 2019. The new interchangeable designation was…
The world of biosimilar litigation is back in full swing with several BPCIA lawsuits currently pending. On October 12, 2023, in the second webinar in Goodwin’s 2023 Biosimilars Webinar Series, Goodwin IP Litigation partner and BMW Founding Editor, Elaine Blais, Goodwin IP Litigation partner and BMW Editor-in-Chief, Natasha Daughtrey and…
On September 29, 2023, Biogen announced the FDA approval of TOFIDENCE (tocilizumab-bavi) intravenous formulation which is the first tocilizumab biosimilar approved by the FDA in the United States. TOFIDENCE is approved for the treatment of moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis (RA), polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (PJIA), and systemic juvenile…
Today, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced that the Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman “for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA [messenger RNA] vaccines against COVID-19.” Dr. Karikó is a Professor at Szeged University and…
Denial of Motion to Dismiss and Motion for Preliminary Injunction in Chambers of Commerce case On Friday, September 29, the court in Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce et al. v. Becerra et al. (S.D. Ohio, Judge Newman) issued the first substantive order addressing legal challenges to the Drug Price Negotiation…
On September 20, Alvotech announced that FDA has accepted the resubmission of its Biologics License Application (BLA) for AVT02, a high concentration, interchangeable biosimilar to HUMIRA (adalimumab). FDA has set a Biosimilar User Fee Act (BsUFA) goal date for approval of the resubmitted AVT02 BLA of February 24, 2024. As…
On September 20, Merck announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted priority review status to Merck’s supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) seeking approval for its anti-PD-1 therapy KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) in combination with external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) plus concurrent chemotherapy, followed by brachytherapy, as a treatment for newly…