Last week, Biogen Inc. announced it had reached an agreement to sell its equity stake in the Samsung Bioepis joint venture to partner Samsung Biologics for an aggregate consideration of up to $2.3 billion. According to a press release from Samsung Biologics, Biogen initially invested a 15% stake when the…
As we close out another calendar year, we look back at the top legal developments of 2021 that could influence the market for biologics and biosimilars. There were many interesting decisions and other developments in district court, at the Federal Circuit, at the PTAB, and even at the ITC. Biosimilars…
As regular Big Molecule Watch readers know, the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (“BPCIA”) was signed into law as part of the Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010, creating an abbreviated licensure pathway for “biosimilar” and “interchangeable” biological products. The BPCIA also introduced a new scheme to resolve…
On November 8, 2021, Bio-Thera Solutions, Ltd. announced that China’s National Medical Products Administration has accepted the marketing authorization application for BAT1806, a biosimilar of Roche’s Actemra® (tocilizumab), which is a recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody targeting the interleukin-6 receptor (IL-6R). Actemra® has been approved in the United States for the…
In their respective third quarter financial results, Amgen and Pfizer both announced plans to seek interchangeable status for select biosimilars. Amgen announced that patients are currently being enrolled in Phase 3 studies to support interchangeability designation in the U.S. for biosimilars of AMJEVITA (adalimumab) and ABP 654 (ustekinumab). Pfizer also…
Last week, Coherus and Junshi Biosciences announced that the FDA accepted their BLA for toripalimab in combination with gemcitabine and cisplatin for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (“NPC”) and toripalimab monotherapy for the second-line or above treatment of recurrent or metastatic NPC after…
This week, three development programs announced updates to their ranibizumab biosimilars. Ranibizumab is the active ingredient in Genentech’s LUCENTIS, which is indicated for retinal vascular disorders, including neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration (AMD). On June 25, 2021, Samsung Bioepis Co., Ltd. (“Samsung Bioepis”) and Biogen Inc. (“Biogen”) announced that the…
On April 26, Representatives Paul D. Tonko (D-NY) and Bob Gibbs (R-OH) introduced the Star Rating for Biosimilars Act. The proposed legislation would direct the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to evaluate Medicare plans based on whether or not cost-saving biosimilars are available to enrollees and to evaluate…
In March 2021, researchers from Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital published a white paper exploring the link between entry of biosimilars under The Biological Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA) and moderation in drug prices driven by market competition. The white paper studied the price and…
The Senate passed a bill (S. 164) earlier this month (on March 3, 2021) “[t]o educate health care providers and the public on biosimilar biological products, and for other purposes.” The proposed “Advancing Education on Biosimilars Act of 2021” would add a section to the Public Health Service Act on…