Business

After increased pressure on pharmacy benefit managers to remake their approaches to rebates, CVS Health has announced that it will offer a new prescription benefit option in 2019 that will pass all drug makers' rebates back to its plan clients.

Celltrion has announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has accepted for review an extension marketing authorization application for a subcutaneous formulation of the company’s biosimilar infliximab, CT-P13 (sold in Europe as Remsima and in the United States as Inflectra).

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

On Friday, Pfizer announced that it has signed an agreement with AbbVie that resolves all intellectual property disputes related to Pfizer’s PF-06410293, a proposed biosimilar adalimumab referencing Humira.

Earlier this week, Daiichi Sankyo announced that it has launched its biosimilar trastuzumab, trastuzumab BS, referencing Herceptin, in Japan.

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

During November 2018, biosimilar developers worldwide made tough choices about how to move forward with their products and pipelines.

Earlier this week, Bioprocess International reported that Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) had decided to focus on launching its biosimilar products solely in the US market, and would forego launches in the European Union. The Center for Biosimilars® was able to independently confirm this report in an email with a representative from BI.

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.

A founding member of the Biosimilars Forum has withdrawn its membership from the organization. Amgen has confirmed to The Center for Biosimilars® that it gave up its membership in the group in September of this year.

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

This week, the European Parliament’s Health Committee introduced amendments to Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) manufacturing waivers.

This month, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Italy’s national health system can reimburse for the use of bevacizumab in the treatment of eye diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration, despite the fact that bevacizumab does not have a marketing authorization for this indication.

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, a trade group representing UK drug makers, announced that it has reached a voluntary deal with the UK government that involves capping the growth of sales of brand-name drugs to the National Health Service at 2% per year in exchange for faster product launches and speedier appraisals by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE).

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

Last week, Biosimilars Canada, a trade organization representing Canada’s biosimilar developers including Sandoz, Mylan, and Fresenius Kabi, among others, announced that it had chosen Innomar Strategies to be the preferred provider for the Biosimilars Canada Patient Support Program platform.

This morning, the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) announced that it has completed negotiations over using the best-value adalimumab product, and it has arrived at a plan whereby it will save £300 million (approximately $386 million) of its current £400 million-per-year (approximately $514 million) spending on adalimumab.

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.

Nielsen, a global measurement and data analytics company, recently revealed that direct-to-consumer healthcare advertising has reached 75% of US cancer survivors on television.

Biosimilar developer Alvotech and Fuji Pharma have entered into a partnership agreement for the commercialization of Alvotech’s entire pipeline of biosimilars in Japan, the companies announced this week.

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.

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

Sandoz, a subsidiary division of Novartis, has launched its infliximab biosimilar, Zessly, in Germany. The launch brings the number of infliximab biosimilars available in Germany to 3.

Denmark’s national authorities have confirmed to The Center for Biosimilars® that AbbVie's Humira did not offer the lowest price for adalimumab in either of 2 national tenders.

A key factor in overcoming barriers to United States market entry is sharing the positive experiences of both healthcare professionals and patients, explained HoUng Kim, Head of Strategy and Operations Division, Celltrion Healthcare during a presentation at SMi Biosimilars USA Conference in Iselin, NJ, that took place November 14-15, 2018.

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.

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.