It has been a busy week so far for biosimilar developers, with multiple collaboration and commercialization deals announced. First, on November 4, Henlius and Ascentage Pharma announced that they entered into a collaboration to conduct clinical trials of the combination therapy for oncology using Henlius’s rituximab biosimilar, HLX01, which was…
In 2017, the Health Department of Brazil’s Federal District ordered that patients currently prescribed Remicade (infliximab) be switched over to the biosimilar, Remsima. Earlier this month, researchers in Brazil published a one-year follow-up study of patients who underwent the switch. They reported that, “[l]ike previous European studies, [their] results suggest…
In recent weeks, several drug makers announced collaborations for the development, manufacture, and/or commercialization of a variety of biosimilars or follow-on biologics. Below are some highlights: On September 3, 2019, Polpharma Biologics and Sandoz announced that they have entered into a global commercialization agreement in connection with Polpharma’s proposed biosimilar…
We have covered Pfizer’s antitrust suit against Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturer of REMICADE (infliximab), as well as a related antitrust litigation filed by retailers Walgreen and Kroger Co. and direct and indirect purchasers of Remicade. The cases generally allege that Johnson & Johnson excluded Pfizer’s infliximab biosimilar from the market through anticompetitive…
United Healthcare and OneOncology have added Amgen’s MVASI (bevacizumab-awwb) and KANJINTI (trastuzumab-anns), biosimilars to AVASTIN and HERCEPTIN respectively, as preferred products, according to literature released by those providers. United Healthcare released a bulletin indicating that, as of October 1, 2019, United Healthcare will update its preferred product language to reflect…
As we previously reported, in May 2017, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the United Kingdom reached a provisional conclusion that Merck Sharp & Dohme Limited (MSD) violated competition law through a discount pricing scheme for Remicade that was likely to restrict biosimilar competition. In March 2019, after considering…
Earlier this month, it was reported by the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPs) that Pfizer has terminated five biosimilar projects in preclinical development. According RAPs, Pfizer’s Director of Global Media Relations, Thomas Biegi, said that resources from these programs would be reallocated “to late stage programs across Pfizer’s other key…
Here are some recent developments in U.S. legal proceedings relating to biosimilars: On December 10, 2018, in the Southern District of Florida, Apotex filed a motion to dismiss the patent infringement complaint that Amgen filed this past August alleging patent infringement based on Apotex’s filing of aBLAs for pegfilgrastim and filgrastim biosimilar…
Below is a summary of recent updates on clinical studies involving bevacizumab and infliximab biosimilars. Bevacizumab: China-based Innovent Biologics announced last week that IBI305, a potential biosimilar to bevacizumab, met pre-defined primary endpoints in two clinical trials against branded bevacizumab. One trial was a phase III clinical trial that compared…
Over the past month, several drug developers announced updates regarding their biosimilar programs. Below are some highlights, in addition to the many biosimilar developments on which we have already reported: Today, December 3, 2018, Celltrion announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has accepted Celltrion’s Extension Marketing Authorisation Application for…