The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) recently announced that in its last fiscal year, it had saved $419 million in switching to biosimilar and generic versions of ten expensive drugs. These savings exceeded the $324 million in savings the NHS had forecasted. According to the announcement, most of the…
On July 23, 2018, Congressman John Sarbanes (D-Md.) introduced a bipartisan bill, the Biosimilars Competition Act of 2018, meant to curb “pay-for-delay” agreements entered into by biologic and biosimilar drug manufacturers. According to Congressman Sarbanes, the purpose of the bill is to help lower the cost of prescription drugs by affirmatively giving…
Last week Biocon announced that it has received EU GMP certification for its biosimilars facility in Bangalore, after an inspection by European agencies this past March. Biocon’s Bangalore biosimilar facilities were also inspected earlier this year by the FDA, and last month Biocon announced the FDA issued an Establishment Inspection Report stating “that the inspection stands…
Today, we’re catching up with news from around the industry. Amgen recently announced top-line results from a Phase 3 study evaluating its infliximab biosimilar candidate, ABP 710. According to the announcement, the study, a randomized, double-blind trial of 558 patients over 22 weeks, demonstrated the non-inferiority of ABP 710 to…
As we previously reported, in September 2017 FDA issued draft guidance entitled Statistical Approaches to Evaluate Analytical Similarity that “describes the type[s] of information a sponsor of a proposed biosimilar product should obtain” to support a showing of analytical similarity to a licensed reference product biologic. Today, FDA withdrew this draft guidance….
As we reported last month, many state legislatures have passed or are considering biosimilar substitution bills. Alaska, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont are the latest states to join this list. Last week, the Alaska legislature passed SB 32, entitled “Prescriptions for Biological Products,” which allows substitution of “an interchangeable biological…
Pegfilgrastim litigation We had previously covered Judge Stark’s grant of Coherus’s motion to dismiss Amgen’s complaint alleging infringement of the ‘707 patent in Amgen v. Coherus. Today, Judge Stark entered judgment against Amgen and dismissed the case. In the Amgen v. Mylan litigation earlier covered here, Mylan recently filed a…
Last week the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (“CHMP”) of the European Medicines Agency (“EMA”) recommended two biosimilar medicines for approval. First, the CHMP adopted a positive opinion for the marketing authorization of Kanjinti® (ABP 980), Amgen and Allergan’s proposed biosimilar to Herceptin® (trastuzumab). The CHMP opinion recommends…
The CREATES Act (Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples Act), currently pending in Congress states as its aim to promote drug price competition by removing an impediment to the development and approval of lower cost generics or biosimilars. Currently some branded companies are using safety requirements, including restricted…
Last week it was reported (here and here) that Merck launched Samsung Bioepis’ Ontruzant® in the United Kingdom, the first biosimilar trastuzumab launched in Europe. Ontruzant® is a biosimilar of Roche’s Herceptin® and is approved to treat early breast cancer, metastatic breast cancer and metastatic gastric cancer. This launch follows…