Regulatory

Last week, Insurer Cigna and pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) Express Scripts overcame 2 hurdles to completing their $67 billion merger as New York and California insurance regulators signed off on the deal.

Drug maker Amgen announced this week that it has submitted a Biologics License Application (BLA) for ABP 710, a proposed infliximab biosimilar referencing Remicade.

On Friday, Pfizer announced that the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has adopted a positive opinion of its proposed bevacizumab biosimilar, PF-06439535, to be marketed under the trade name Zirabev.

The FDA has approved Celltrion and Teva’s Herzuma (trastuzumab-pkrb), a biosimilar trastuzumab referencing Herceptin, for the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer.

The Center for Biosimilars® recaps the top news for the week of December 10, 2018.

On Tuesday, the FDA took significant steps toward a long-awaited transition of insulins and other products that have historically been regulated as drugs and follow-ons to regulation as biologics and biosimilars.

Since the advent of biosimilar filgrastim, patient access to the prophylaxis of chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia has improved in many regulatory territories, yet concerns remain about whether the United States is keeping pace with the rest of the world in biosimilar uptake and associated patient access.

Pfenex announced this week that it submitted to the FDA a New Drug Application (NDA) for its PF708, a teriparatide follow-on referencing Eli Lilly’s Forteo for the treatment of osteoporosis.

The Center for Biosimilars® recaps the top news for the week of December 3, 2018.

In the United States, Amgen has 57 patents on Enbrel, whereas in Europe it has 20, and in Japan it has 18.

Last month, the European Parliament’s Health Committee introduced amendments to Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) manufacturing waivers. On December 4, 2018, the committee voted in favor of the amendments.

In revised draft guidance published in October 2018, the FDA announced its intention to crack down on citizen petitions that seek to delay competition from generic or biosimilar drugs. Now, in a comment letter, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has said that it stands ready to work with the FDA on curtailing abusive petitions.

The Biosimilars Forum is lending its support to Pfizer’s August 2018 citizen petition to the FDA to clarify appropriate sponsor communications about biosimilars.

The Center for Biosimilars® recaps the top news for the week of November 26, 2018.

JCR Pharmaceuticals announced yesterday that it has launched its biosimilar agalsidase beta product, referencing Fabrazyme, in Japan for the treatment of Fabry disease. JCR developed the drug in partnership with Amicus Therapeutics and GlaxoSmithKline.

The FDA has approved Celltrion and Teva’s rituximab biosimilar, Truxima (rituximab-abbs).

Sandoz announced today that the European Commission has granted a marketing authorization for its pegfilgrastim biosimilar, Ziextenzo, referencing Neulasta.

The European Commission has granted a marketing authorization to Cinfa Biotech and Mundipharma’s biosimilar pegfilgrastim, Pelmeg, for all indications of the reference product, Neulasta.

Mylan and Biocon jointly announced earlier this month that their biosimilar insulin glargine, sold as Semglee and referencing Lantus, has launched in the United Kingdom.

The Center for Biosimilars® recaps the top news for the week of November 19, 2018.

The FDA recently announced that it approved a record-breaking number of generic drugs in October 2018.

This month, Novartis submitted a letter to the FDA in support of a citizen petition that Pfizer filed in August.

Samsung BioLogics, parent company of the biosimilar development business Samsung Bioepis, has been fined by the Republic of Korea’s financial regulatory body, The Securities and Futures Commission, after the commission ruled that Samsung had committed fraud.

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

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.

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

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

Allergan’s dry-eye drug, Restasis, has been the subject of complex legal wrangling involving the transfer of patents that could next extend to the Supreme Court of the United States. Now, in a separate twist in the story of generic competition for the cyclosporine ophthalmic emulsion, generic developer Teva has sued the FDA in the United States district court for the District of Columbia over Teva’s status as the first filer of a generic version of the drug.

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.

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