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The Center for Biosimilars® recaps the top news for the week of November 12, 2018.

During the first day of the SMi Biosimilars Meeting held in Iselin, New Jersey, from November 14-15, 2018, Christina Yunis, global biosimilars market development lead at Pfizer, discussed the sustainability of and challenges seen in the biosimilars market from an industry perspective.

Pfizer announced today that it has launched its epoetin alfa biosimilar, Retacrit, at a substantial discount to the reference product, Epogen.

Innovent Biologics, a China-based biopharmaceutical company, announced that its new drug application for its proposed adalimumab biosimilar IBI303, referencing Humira, was accepted by the National Medical Products Administration.

This week, healthcare economics stakeholders have gathered in Barcelona, Spain, for the 2018 annual European meeting of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. During the meeting, research teams from around the globe are presenting findings that support the use of biosimilar infliximab as a cost-saving measure.

AbbVie has struck agreements with multiple developers over biosimilar adalimumab, forestalling US market entry until 2023. Here's when each product could potentially reach US patients.

Genentech says that the biosimilar company benefited from its proprietary information, and a hearing is scheduled for December 13, 2018.

In its investor call on Thursday, Coherus Biosciences revealed that it will launch its biosimilar pegfilgrastim, Udenyca, at a 33% discount to the reference Neulasta.

The Center for Biosimilars® recaps the top news for the week of November 5, 2018.

According to the earnings report, aflibercept sales in the United States increased 7% to $1.02 billion versus third quarter 2017 results.

Notably, Oncobiologics revealed that it is developing the bevacizumab product as an innovator therapy, and it will not use the biosimilar pathway for eventual approval.

Momenta Pharmaceuticals announced yesterday that it has reached a settlement with Humira-maker AbbVie over a proposed biosimilar adalimumab, M923.

At the Department of Abdominal Oncology at the National Cancer Institute of Naples in Italy, an expert pharmacist was involved in evaluating the economic impact of improving the Italian registry of high-cost drugs, particularly bevacizumab, cetuximab, panitumumab, and trastuzumab.

Republic of Korea-based Celltrion has won a court decision that declared patents on Roche’s Herceptin invalid in Japan.

Sandoz announced on Friday that it will no longer pursue FDA approval for its biosimilar rituximab, GP2013.

The Center for Biosimilars® recaps the top news for the week of October 29, 2018.

After previous US regulatory setbacks, Coherus Biosciences has gained FDA approval for its pegfilgrastim biosimilar, Udenyca (pegfilgrastim-cbqv).

In an effort to combat competition from biosimilar adalimumab products in Europe as patents covering the reference product expired last month, AbbVie, developer of Humira, is reportedly prepared to offer a substantial discount. However, many European nations have policies that require a mandatory reduction of the reference product’s list price after biosimilar entry.

In an interview with The Center for Biosimilars®, Imron Aly, JD, partner at Schiff Hardin LLP, explained that this long-running case to invoke sovereign immunity from inter partes review (IPR) carries important lessons for innovator product sponsors and generic and biosimilar developers as they consider IPR proceedings and the patent landscape as a whole.

US voters will head to the polls next week in the midterm elections, and in the run-up to the election, the Kaiser Family Foundation has revealed that pharmaceutical companies have donated nearly $79 million to members of Congress over the past 6 election cycles.

On an earnings call earlier this week, Pfizer CEO Ian Read said that the company will be returning to “business as normal” on its drug pricing in January, after having agreed to hold off on price increases earlier this year following pressure from the Trump administration.

According to the United States Attorney's Office, Xanthe Lam, a principal scientist at the Roche Holding AG unit from 1986 until 2017, conspired with her husband and fellow former employee Allen Lam, and John Chan, another former Genentech employee, to steal trade secrets over the course of 5 years related to the biopharmaceutical dornase alfa (Pulmozyme) and some of Roche’s top-selling cancer drugs: rituximab (Rituxan), trastuzumab (Herceptin), and bevacizumab (Avastin).

The FDA has approved Sandoz’s biosimilar adalimumab, Hyrimoz (adalimumab-adaz).

With the launch of some of the most highly anticipated products thus far in the biosimilar experience, and with the release of key new data on multiple biosimilar products, October 2018 was a memorable month for biosimilar stakeholders.

The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that public employees in the state of Utah could be paid by their insurance plan to fill prescriptions for high-cost drugs in Mexico instead of in their local pharmacies.

In recent years, spending on specialty drugs, including spending on a proliferation of orphan drugs that treat rare diseases, has raised concerns about sustainability of the healthcare system.

NeuClone has announced the start of its first-in-human trial of a trastuzumab biosimilar in a phase 1 trial.

Secukinumab’s growing number of indications and its body of positive data may help it to compete for a substantial share of the inflammatory disease market against an increasing number of US- and EU-approved biosimilars, including 4 recently launched adalimumab biosimilars in the European Union.

On Thursday, the Trump administration unveiled a new plan that it hopes will reduce Medicare’s costs for prescription drugs. Under the plan, announced by President Donald Trump in a speech made at HHS, CMS could set its prices for some drugs—including high-cost biologics—based on the prices paid in other nations.

The Center for Biosimilars® recaps the top news for the week of October 22, 2018.