Welcome to the Big Molecule Watch!

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Goodwin’s award-winning Big Molecule Watch is the best resource for daily updates and analyses of regulatory issues, litigation, legislation, and other news in the world of biologics, biosimilars and related technologies. The editors of this blog have collectively been watching and engaging with the world of biologics and biosimilars (“big molecules”) since before the inception of the biosimilar industry in the U.S.  With extensive experience representing clients at all stages of a biologic’s or biosimilar’s lifecycle, from research and development, to patents, to regulatory application and approval, and through litigation and appeals, we are excited to share our observations and insights as the industry and the law continues to develop in this exciting area.

This blog focuses on “big molecules” as opposed to “small molecules.” Small molecule drugs have low molecular weight, a simple and well-defined structure, and are chemically synthesized. In contrast, “big molecule” drugs have high molecular weight, complex structures, and are derived from living organisms. For example, aspirin is small molecule while a monoclonal antibody is a big molecule. For further reading on big molecules, consider FDA's resources on biologics.

May 2019 FDA Guidance on Interchangeability Now Available

This month the FDA published its Guidance for Industry titled “Considerations in Demonstrating Interchangeability With a Reference Product”.  The guidance is “intended to assist sponsors in demonstrating that a proposed therapeutic protein product is interchangeable with a reference product for the purposes of submitting a marketing application or supplement under…

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Insulin Biosimilars Update

Some noteworthy regulatory and litigation events related to insulin biosimilars have occurred recently. On May 13, 2019, FDA held a public hearing entitled “The Future of Insulin Biosimilars: Increasing Access and Facilitating the Efficient Development of Biosimilar and Interchangeable Insulin Products” at FDA’s White Oak campus in Silver Spring, Maryland. …

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AbbVie and Boehringer Ingelheim Settle Adalimumab Biosimilar Patent Disputes

Today, AbbVie and Boehringer Ingelheim (“BI”) announced that they reached a resolution of all intellectual property-related litigation concerning BI’s proposed biosimilar Cyltezo® (adalimumab-adbm).  According to the press releases, AbbVie has granted BI a non-exclusive license to AbbVie’s intellectual property relating to adalimumab in the United States.  All U.S. litigation pending between the parties…

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BREAKING NEWS: Federal Circuit Affirms Sandoz’s Victory Over Amgen in Filgrastim and Pegfilgrastim Biosimilar Patent Litigation

This morning, the Federal Circuit issued a precedential opinion affirming the district court’s judgment of non-infringement in favor of Sandoz in its BPCIA litigation against Amgen concerning Sandoz’s Zarxio® (filgrastim-sndz) biosimilar product and proposed pegfilgrastim biosimilar.  As we previously reported, in December 2017 the Northern California district court granted summary…

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Taiwan-based EirGenix and Sandoz Partner to Commercialize EirGenix’s Trastuzumab Biosimilar

gloved hand withdraws drug solution with syringe

Taiwan-based EirGenix, Inc. and Sandoz recently announced that they have entered into an agreement, giving Sandoz an exclusive license to commercialize EirGenix’s proposed biosimilar version of Roche’s Herceptin (trastuzumab), which is now in in Phase III clinical development for treatment of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 positive (HER2+) breast…

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US DOJ Urges Striking Down Entire ACA

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,…

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