Latest Conference

At a Wednesday session of the SMi Biosimilars North America conference, Chrys Kokino, MBA, head of Mylan’s global biologics commercial division, said that biosimilars can be part of improving access to and affordability of biologic therapies for patients worldwide, but also highlighted the hurdles that biosimilar developers will have to overcome as they seek to gain a foothold in the US marketplace.

Three presentations at the 2017 American College of Rheumatology’s Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, covered research on the real-world treatment of rheumatology patients with originator infliximab therapy and biosimilar infliximab (CT-P13; Inflectra and Remsima) and etanercept (Benepali) therapy.

“If the patient doesn’t have better access, you don’t need a biosimilar," argues Roy Fleischmann, MD.

Chinese researchers employed a new online consultation tool to improve disease management for patients with rheumatic diseases who travel long distances for a consultation with their rheumatologist and noted significant savings for the patients.

Four presentations on Monday at the 2017 American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR) Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, covered research comparing reference etanercept to 4 proposed biosimilars: SB4, LBEC0101, CHS-0214, and GP2015.

At this week’s American College of Rheumatology 2017 Annual Meeting, Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) announced 1-year data from the VOLTAIRE-RA trial, which showed that BI’s newly approved adalimumab biosimilar (Cyltezo) showed no clinically meaningful differences in safety, efficacy, or immunogenicity from the reference adalimumab (Humira) in patients who had moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

On Tuesday, 2 research groups presented findings from studies conducted in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who were switched from reference rituximab to a biosimilar therapy.

Research presented at the 2017 American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting found that patients with rheumatoid arthritis and higher body mass index were less likely to achieve remission and more likely to face higher rates of disability.

Today, 4 presentations at the 2017 American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR) Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, covered research on switching studies concerning etanercept and infliximab biosimilars.

In a presentation titled “Biosimilar Medicine: Changing Landscape in Health Care,” given on Monday at the 2017 American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, J. Eugene Huffstutter MD, FACP, FACR, shared practical considerations for using biosimilars in the rheumatology clinic.

Researchers identify factors that make certain patients with rheumatoid arthritis good candidates for successfully tapering biologic DMARD dose.

Three presentations at this week’s 2017 American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA, cover research on pharmacokinetic equivalence, safety, and switching of 2 proposed adalimumab biosimilars, GP2017 and CHS-1420.

Two posters presented today at the American College of Rheumatology’s 2017 meeting in San Diego, California, highlight the gaps in US rheumatologists’ knowledge concerning biosimilar therapies, and underscore the importance of greater physician education about biosimilar medicines.

Complete phase 3 data show that a biosimilar almost beat reference trastuzumab (Herceptin) for the primary endpoint of pathologic complete response in patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer.

At the AAM Biosimilar Council Conference 2017, Hillel Cohen, executive director of scientific affairs at Sandoz, disambiguated key terms in biosimilars.

Providing an overview on where the healthcare reform debate is headed, Andrew Slavitt, former head of CMS, refined the discussion to highlight the potential for biosimilars to influence the rising costs of drug products.

During a panel on the second day of the 2017 AAM Biosimilars Council Conference, held in Washington DC, regulatory leaders from Pfizer and Sandoz shared their experiences with the development of their biosimilar products: epoetin alfa (Epogen) and etanercept (Erelzi), respectively.

At the 2017 AAM Biosimilars Council Conference, Adrian van den Hoven, director general of Medicines for Europe, contradicted the conventional thinking about biosimilars, saying that biosimilars do not simply reduce costs of treatment. Instead, he said, they deliver “huge additional health benefits to patients.”

At the 2017 AAM Biosimilars Council Conference, policy experts addressed the question of how biosimilar developers can navigate the complex and challenging biologics marketplace in the United States.

On Tuesday, leaders of patient advocacy groups presenting at the 2017 AAM Biosimilars Council Conference had a clear message for industry: biosimilar uptake will only happen in earnest when patients begin to see savings on their out-of-pocket treatment costs.

The epoetin alfa biosimilar HX575 (Binocrit, a product of Sandoz) was approved in the European Union in 2007 for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced anemia (CIA) and anemia associated with chronic renal failure.

Christine Simmon, senior vice president of policy and strategic alliances for the Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM) and executive director of The Biosimilars Council, told The Center for Biosimilars® at the 2017 AAM Biosimilars Council Conference that upcoming product approvals in the biosimilar space are exciting prospects not only for the industry, but, most importantly, for patients.

Three posters presented on September 10, 2017, at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 meeting in Madrid, Spain, covered research on 2 proposed pegfilgrastim biosimilars and evaluated the use of filgrastim in oncology practice.

Oncology trials often report on progression-free survival or overall survival, but the authors of an analysis presented during a poster session today at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress argue that such endpoints are less sensitive then short-term overall response rate.

Poster presentations at this week’s European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) conference include the results of 5 studies on biosimilar trastuzumab candidates.

The study pesented at the American Diabetes Association 77th Scientific Sessions compared Mylan/Biocon’s MYL-1501D, a proposed biosimilar to Sanofi-Aventis’ insulin glargine, with the reference product.

In order to investigate the best morning insulin therapy to improve glycemic variability in patients with type 2 diabetes, researchers from Japan compared morning injections of insulin glulisine and insulin glargine with injections of insulin lispro and insulin glargine biosimilar.

A study presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) found that there was no clinically meaningful difference when patients with breast cancer were switched from treatment with reference filgrastim (Neupogen) to EP2006, the first FDA-approved filgrastim biosimilar (marketed as Zarxio).

Research presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) shows that CT-P6, a proposed trastuzumab biosimilar, is safe and effective as a neoadjuvant treatment in HER2–positive early breast cancer.

A study at ASCO 2017 demonstrates that SB3, a proposed biosimilar to trastuzumab (Herceptin) has comparable efficacy and safety to the reference product based on the breast pathological complete response.