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…
Goodwin’s Willy Jay is speaking on a panel this week at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Accessible Medicines, formerly known as the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, Access 2018. Mr. Jay’s panel focuses on issues relating to closing the legal loopholes blocking access to generics and biosimilars. AAM states that…
On February 7, 2018, Lupin announced positive results from a Phase III clinical trial for its etanercept biosimilar candidate, YB113. YB113 is being developed by YL Biologics, a joint venture of Lupin and Yoshido, a Japanese pharmaceutical company. The clinical trial compared the safety and efficacy of YB113 to Amgen’s…
The Journal of Clinical Oncology reported that Merck and Samsung Bioepis’ biosimilar to trastuzumab (Herceptin®), SB3, demonstrated equivalence to trastuzumab in recent Phase III trials. According to the report, in a phase III, randomized, double-blind study of 800 women with HER2-positive breast cancer, SB3 induced a rate of breast pathologic complete…
A paper published in the Generics and Biosimilars Initiative Journal reports on “an overview of the available real-world data about the pattern of use and the comparative effectiveness of biosimilars and originator biological drugs in Italy.” The paper, which was based on studies funded by the Italian Ministry of Health,…
As we previously reported, on September 20, 2017, Pfizer filed an antitrust lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania alleging that J&J has engaged in an anticompetitive scheme to protect its Remicade® (infliximab) product. On November 28, 2017, J&J filed…
The February edition of the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases published a Recommendation titled, “Consensus-based recommendations for the use of biosimilars to treat rheumatological diseases.” A panel of rheumatologists, dermatologists, gastroenterologists, and pharmacologists, as well as patients and regulators, were assembled to conduct a study aimed at developing recommendations regarding…
Last week, Johnson & Johnson held its earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2017. During the call, company representatives discussed an 8% decline in U.S. sales for Remicade as Johnson & Johnson “continued to compete in the phase of biosimilar entries.” As we previously reported, there are two biosimilars…
On January 15, 2018, Swedish company XBrane Biopharma issued a press release stating that, in December 2017, it signed a non-binding letter of intent with Chinese company CR Pharma regarding XLucane, a ranibizumab biosimilar. According to the press release, XBrane and CR Pharma intend to take Xlucane to market in China,…
Last week, Sandoz announced a new collaboration with Asian biopharmaceutical company Biocon to “to develop, manufacture and commercialize multiple biosimilars in immunology and oncology for patients worldwide. Under the terms of the agreement, both companies will share responsibility for end-to-end development, manufacturing and global regulatory approvals for a number of…