News

Drug maker Biocon has received a Form 483 from the FDA after an inspection of its manufacturing facility in Malaysia.

The Center for Biosimilars recaps the top 5 biosimilars articles for the week of February 19, 2018.

A study published in Alimentary Pharmacology Therapeutics in December 2017 compared the outcomes, pharmacokinetics, and immunogenicity of treatment intensification strategies in patients with Crohn disease (CD) who have lost clinical response to the anti–tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy infliximab.

In an animal model of bleomycin-induced lung toxicity, filgrastim increased alveolar neutrophil recruitment, pulmonary edema, and lung myeloperoxidase activity. That finding led to concerns about whether filgrastim could increase pulmonary toxicity when used together with adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine regimens.

The international initiative AllTrials has launched a new online tracking tool that publicly discloses which research entities have not reported data from clinical trials.

Gillian Woollett, DPhil, MA, senior vice president of Avalere, recently authored an article suggesting ways that the FDA can facilitate applications and approvals for interchangeable biosimilars.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who use corticosteroids can delay the initiation of biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), have higher incidence of adverse events (AEs), and have more healthcare costs before the initiation of biologic DMARDs than patients who do not use corticosteroids.

Pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts and Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc, have announced that they will expand their group purchasing efforts to include specialty drugs, including biologics and biosimilars.

An editorial recently published in The BMJ discusses addresses 1 of the most commonly misunderstood biosimilar concepts: extrapolation.

The Patients for Biologics Safety and Access (PBSA) is calling on the FDA to revise its prescriber-directed online educational materials on biosimilars. However, not all patient groups agree with PBSA’s stance.

Biocad, a Russia-based drug manufacturer, received approval for an infliximab biosimilar (referencing Remicade) from Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service last month. The company anticipates expanding to other markets as soon as later this year, or early 2019.

A white paper released this month by the Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM) says that brand-name drugs are behind high prescription drug costs, and that those costs aren’t only hurting patients’ financial wellbeing, but also endangering their health.

Last week, at the European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation's 13th annual congress in Vienna, Austria, researchers presented data from the NOR-SWITCH EXTENSION trial—a 26-week open label extension of the NOR-SWITCH trial—concerning the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) subgroup.

At the recent European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation’s 13th Congress in Vienna, Austria, several studies investigated the efficacy of infliximab biosimilars in treating Crohn disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

While corticosteroids are a common treatment for uveitis, effective corticosteroid-sparing therapies are necessary to maintain disease control without risking corticosteroid-related adverse events.

At the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation’s 13th annual congress, held in Vienna, Austria, a number of studies explored switching from reference infliximab to its biosimilar.

Prior to January 1, 2018, 340B facilities treating Medicare beneficiaries were reimbursed at the average sales price of the drug plus 6% (biosimilars at ASP plus 6% of the reference product’s ASP). However, the Medicare Part B Outpatient Prospective Payment System established a new rate for drugs billed by 340B facilities as of 2018 of ASP minus 22.5%.

Today, at the 13th Congress of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO), researchers released 12-month data from the Personalized Anti–Tumor Necrosis Factor (anti-TNF) Therapy in Crohn Disease (CD) Study (PANTS).

Scott Gottlieb, MD, Commissioner of the FDA, is calling for changes to biosimilar regulation to help facilitate biosimilar approval, market entry, and competition.

This week, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) released a new statement that seeks to offer clinicians guidance on the use of biosimilars in oncology as a wave of patent expirations is expected to bring more anti-cancer and supportive care biosimilars to the US market.

The Center for Biosimilars recaps the top 5 biosimilars articles for the week of February 12, 2018.

The TITRATE study is designed to investigate whether intensive management of RA leads to a greater number of remissions at 12 months, in addition to examining levels of disability, quality of life and acceptability, and cost-effectiveness.

Ireland’s Minister for Health, Simon Harris, announced this week that Ireland is seeking to join Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Austria in their BeNeLuxA Initiative, a group that negotiates price deals on pharmaceuticals directly with manufacturers.

A study recently published in the European Journal of Hematology reports diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL)–specific findings from MONITOR-GCSF, a pan-European, multicenter, prospective, observational study that attempts to describe the treatment patterns and clinical outcomes of patients who received biosimilar filgrastim in the prophylaxis of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia and febrile neutropenia.

Yesterday, Eli Lilly announced that its anti–IL-17 monoclonal antibody ixekizumab (Taltz) met the primary and key secondary endpoints in the phase 3 COAST-V trial evaluating its safety and efficacy in ankylosing spondylitis.

According to Roy Fleischmann, MD, a recent American College of Rheumatology (ACR) white paper appropriately describes issues including the nomenclature of biosimilars, the biosimilar approval pathway, and differences between biosimilars for biologic drugs and generics for small-molecule drugs. However, he takes issue with ACR's stance on substitution, extrapolation, and interchangeability.

Celltrion’s head of strategy and operations, Ho Ung Kim, told reporters this week that the intravenous Herzuma could be launched at as much as a 50% discount to a subcutaneously administered presentation of the reference Herceptin.

Roche has released positive phase 2 data for its proposed novel anti–vascular endothelial growth factor and anti–angiopoietin-2 bispecific antibody, RG7716.

Yesterday, President Trump released his budget proposal for the 2019 fiscal year. On the same day, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America released a paper summarizing the NIH’s contribution of funding to new drugs approved from 2010 to 2016.

Researchers found that the biosimilar offered only limited efficacy when used for induction of remission in patients with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis that was refractory to treatment with steroids.