On November 15, the FDA approved Pfizer’s Humira® biosimilar, ABRILADA (adalimumab-afzb). The acting director of the Office of Therapeutic Biologics and Biosimilars in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Sarah Yim, M.D., announced the approval as one of nine new biosimilar products the FDA “has taken action on…
This month, the Star Ratings for Biosimilars Act was introduced in the House. H.R. 4629 is a bipartisan bill that requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to evaluate Medicare Advantage (MA) plans based on whether biosimilars are available to enrollees, and adds “a new set of…
Below are some recent highlights of biosimilar news: On August 20th, two companies announced that they had launched competing biosimilars of Eli Lilly’s FORSTEO (teriparatide) in Europe. First, Gedeon Richter announced that it launched TERROSA in Europe after it received approval from the European Commission. According to the announcement, the…
As we previously reported, the parties in the follow-on Amgen v. Apotex BPCIA litigation concerning Apotex’s proposed biosimilars of NEUPOGEN (filgrastim) and NEULASTA (pegfilgrastim) informed the district court on August 8 that they were drafting a stipulation and unopposed motion that would substitute Apotex as a party with a then-unnamed…
Last week, Big Molecule Watch sat down with Professor Arti Rai to discuss an article she recently co-authored, “How logically impossible patents block biosimilars.” The article, published earlier this month in the journal Nature Biotechnology, examines the differences between the patent and drug approval legal and regulatory regimes and how…
Below are some highlights of recent news in biosimilar and follow-on biologic development: Prestige BioPharma On July 2, Prestige BioPharma (Prestige) licensed the rights to Tuznue, its trastuzumab biosimilar of Roche’s Herceptin, to Mundipharma in selected European markets. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) recently accepted a Marketing Authorisation Application for…
Below are some highlights of recent news in biosimilar and follow-on biologic development: On June 14, Sandoz announced positive clinical study data regarding HYRIMOZ, its biosimilar of HUMIRA (adalimumab). According to Sandoz’s press release, data from a 48-week phase 3 clinical study demonstrated that switching from HUMIRA to HYRIMOZ provides…
On April 29, 2019, Pfizer answered Genentech’s complaint alleging infringement of 22 patents based on Pfizer’s submission of an aBLA seeking U.S. FDA approval of a biosimilar of Avastin® (bevacizumab). In its answer, Pfizer denied Genentech’s allegations of patent infringement and violations of the BPCIA’s patent dance procedures. Pfizer also…
Today, June 13, 2019, the U.S. FDA approved Amgen’s aBLA for KANJINTI (trastuzumab-anns), a biosimilar of Genentech’s HERCEPTIN. According to its approved package insert, KANJINTI, like its reference product, is indicated for the treatment of HER2 overexpressing breast cancer and the treatment of HER2 overexpressing metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction…
A recent analysis reveals that prescription drug prices continue to increase — even for drugs with FDA-approved therapeutic equivalents or biosimilar products. Dr. Nathan Wineinger evaluated the change in prescription drug prices over a 6-year period for the 49 top-selling brand-name medications in the United States. The price of 48…