News

Health insurer Anthem has announced that it will launch its own pharmacy benefit management (PBM) company, IngenioRx, that will operate in partnership with CVS Health, in 2020.

On Monday, a Federal Circuit judge invalidated Allergan’s patents for its dry-eye drug, Restasis, on the basis of obviousness. He also ordered the joinder of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe with Allergan as a co-plaintiff in the action against drug maker Teva, which seeks to develop a follow-on version of the drug.

Switching patients from originator biologics to biosimilars is associated with the potential for a “nocebo” effect, a phenomenon that occurs when a patient’s negative expectation causes a treatment to have a more negative effect than it otherwise would—essentially, the opposite of the placebo effect.

A study newly published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that, regardless of competition or additional approved indications, injectable anticancer drugs are subject to steady increases in price after launch.

The Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee today heard testimony from pharmaceutical manufacturers and the supply chain in a full committee hearing titled “The Cost of Prescription Drugs: How the Drug Delivery System Affects What Patients Pay.”

Anti–tumor necrosis factor drugs are expensive, and there are a limited number of choices for IBD treatment, highlighting the need to use every existing agent optimally.

A newly published study found that the prevalence of T helper (Th) lymphocytes, specifically Th9 cells, is higher in patients who have rheumatoid arthritis, and that these cells may also be involved in immune responses against reference infliximab.

In an ongoing litigation over biosimilar adalimumab, AbbVie, maker of the blockbuster reference adalimumab (Humira), denied biosimilar developer Boehringer Ingelheim’s claims that the company has been padding its patent estate with overlapping patents in an effort to protect its drug from competition.

Because Medicare will be such a large payer for biosimilars, coding and payment policy set forth by CMS will have a significant effect on the success, sustainability, and availability of these lower-cost alternative products.

Who will be the first manufacturer to succeed in gaining European or United States regulatory approval for a biosimilar pegfilgrastim product?

Drug manufacturer JCR announced last month that it has submitted a marketing approval in Japan for JR-051, a proposed agalsidase beta biosimilar referenced on Fabrazyme.

In recent paper published in Rheumatology, authors Till Uhlig, MD, and Guro L. Goll, PhD explore some of the remaining barriers to the adoption of biosimilar therapies in Europe. Physician attitudes, patient concerns, and prescribing restrictions on biologic therapies are all identified in the paper as having a role curbing uptake of biosimilars.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers often pay significant rebates on brand-name medications to pharmacy benefit managers or health plans to reduce the cost of pharmacy benefits and promote their brand-name drugs. Traditionally, these rebates have been provided to payers—not to health plan members.

The Center for Biosimilars recaps the top 5 stories in biosimilars news for the week of October 9.

On this World Arthritis Day, patients with inflammatory diseases have increasing treatment options as biosimilars gain regulatory approval and become more widely available for use. New clinical data also help support the efficacy and safety of these therapies.

A recent study found that, while biologic agents improved outcomes in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, they incurred such high costs that they were deemed cost ineffective, particularly for use as maintenance therapy.

President Donald Trump today signed an executive order on healthcare. The order will allow businesses to form associations that will have the ability to purchase health coverage from across state lines.

The number of patients with Crohn’s disease who receive biologic therapy is strongly correlated with the gross domestic product in 10 European countries, according to a recent analysis.

Navigator programs, which provide outreach, education, and enrollment assistance to consumers eligible for health coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace and Medicaid, learned on August 31, 2017, about a 40% CMS spending cut on the program, with a wide disparity in funding cuts per state.

Judge William C. Bryson has ordered Allergan to file a brief for a federal patent infringement case by Friday, October 13, after questioning whether the drug maker’s recent transfer of drug patents to a sovereign tribe was a “sham.”

The European Union, considered the most seasoned user of biosimilars, has approved the highest number of biosimilars worldwide.

Insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers use step-therapy policies to require doctors to prescribe older, less expensive drugs first, which patients must fail to respond to adequately before they become eligible for newer, more expensive treatments.

Last week, Amgen filed a new lawsuit against Genentech in a California district court. The suit seeks a judgment that Amgen’s newly FDA-approved bevacizumab biosimilar, bevacizumab-awwb (Mvasi) has not infringed and will not infringe on 27 patents for Genentech’s reference bevacizumab treatment, Avastin.

The FDA has issued a Complete Response Letter for Mylan and Biocon’s pegfilgrastim biosimilar, MYL-1401H, referenced on Neulasta.

UK trade group The Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry announced last week that the Administrative Court has denied its application for judicial review of a new National Health Service drug pricing policy.

Amazon may be in the final phase of its decision to enter the online prescription drug sales market, according to analysts. Although Amazon has declined to comment, experts believe the company will decide before Thanksgiving whether it will enter the marketplace.

A study newly published in Archives of Disease in Childhood sought to develop much-needed data specific to the treatment of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease with biosimilar infliximab, with a focus on safety and effectiveness.

The verdict against Hospira—who had not even sold its product in the United States, but was preparing to do so upon the 2015 and 2016 expiration of Amgen’s patents—is the most recent test of the “safe harbor” provision of the Patent Act that protects uses related to FDA approval.

An international panel of healthcare stakeholders recently released consensus recommendations for the use of biosimilars to treat rheumatologic diseases. Learn more about what the panel had to say.

After having warned that it could lose up to 94% of its staff in a relocation from its current home in London, United Kingdom, The European Medicines Agency (EMA) this week revealed its top location choices for the agency’s upcoming move.