News

Yesterday, Biocon withdrew from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) its applications for the authorization of biosimilar trastuzumab and pegfilgrastim.

Treatment guidelines for ovarian and cervical cancer recommend the use of the angiogenesis inhibitor bevacizumab (Avastin), but patient access to this medication and other angiogenesis inhibitors is limited.

While the FDA appears to be taking a more active role in leveraging its position to influence drug prices, the majority of efforts to bring down pharmaceutical costs are taking place at the state level.

While US healthcare providers are growing more willing to adopt lower-cost biosimilar drugs as way to address the rising costs of biologic treatment, biosimilar developers are facing yet another challenge: competing against reference products for a preferred place on formularies.

A phase 1 trial of ABP 980, Amgen’s proposed biosimilar of reference trastuzumab (Herceptin), demonstrated ABP 980’s pharmacokinetic similarity to both US-approved reference trastuzumab and European Union-approved reference trastuzumab. Amgen and Allergan have submitted applications for approval of ABP 980 with both the FDA and the European Medicines Agency.

Although the use biosimilar infliximab in rheumatoid diseases and inflammatory bowel disease has the potential to reduce the treatment costs, a variety of factors may influence the adoption of biosimilar treatments and their potential impacts on healthcare budgets.

The European Medicines Agency announced this month that it has initiated a business continuity plan to cope with the political uncertainty and the workload implications of the United Kingdom’s impending withdrawal from the European Union.

A recent Spanish study concludes that CT-P13, a biosimilar of reference infliximab that has been approved in Korea, the European Union, and the United States, is efficacious and well tolerated in patients with moderate to severe Crohn’s disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC).

Ireland’s Minister for Health has published a consultation paper on overhauling the nation’s approach to biosimilar medicines. The paper indicates that the Irish government is developing a National Biosimilar Medicines Policy “to promote the rational use of biosimilar medicines and to create a sustainable environment for biological medicines in Ireland.”

In 2014, Germany had the highest use of biosimilars in Europe, with around 50% volume uptake. Yet data found that German patients have shown some reluctance to accept biosimilars.

Roche has withdrawn its Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed in India’s Supreme Court against a March 3 High Court decision to allow Biocon and Mylan to use the Swiss drug maker’s product data for their trastuzumab biosimilar.

Spherix Global Insights’ recently released survey of 103 US gastroenterologists yields 3 key takeaways concerning the future of the increasingly competitive ulcerative colitis market.

Price competition in the US insulin market is heating up; Novo Nordisk reported in its second-quarter earnings call that its 2018 US insulin prices could drop below 2017 levels.

The Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health reviewed the clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and advice from guidelines concerning switching from innovator to biosimilar infliximab for the treatment of several autoimmune diseases: rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, plaque psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and psoriatic arthritis.

Insurers operating in the Affordable Care Act marketplace face fresh uncertainties as they plan for 2018: whether Congress will continue in its efforts to repeal or replace the ACA, whether the Trump administration will enforce the individual mandate, or even whether the federal government will continue to pay insurers for cost-sharing reductions are all unanswered questions.

The Center for Biosimilars recaps the top 5 stories in biosimilars news for the week of August 7, 2017.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today dismissed Amgen’s appeal of a previous district court ruling that denied its motion to compel discovery from Hospira in a Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA) litigation.

A recently published study demonstrates that sarilumab improves patient-reported outcomes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who did not achieve adequate response with, or who were intolerant to, anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) agents.

A recent international, randomized, double-blind study comparing the proposed biosimilar GP2013with both the reference rituximab approved in the European Union and in the United States found that GP2013 demonstrated 3-way pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic equivalence with both products in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

FDA Commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, MD, has created a new FDA working group of senior agency staff who will investigate ways to increase generic drug competition.

The US Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the case of Sandoz v Amgen led to industry speculation that biosimilar applicants could lack incentive to participate in the information exchange process with reference product sponsors, or the so-called “patent dance,” provided for under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA).

Coherus BioSciences announced this week that it has filed a petition for inter partes review of a key patent protecting Amgen’s etanercept (Enbrel). Patent 8,163,522 (also known as the ‘522 patent) concerns a process for isolating non-soluble proteins.

Kyle F. Skiermont, PharmD, COO of Fairview Pharmacy Services, spoke with The Center for Biosimilars® about his experience with payers and providers as they prepare for the impact of biosimilar drugs and possible non-medical switching.

The introduction of anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha agents has improved treatment options for patients with inflammatory bowel disease. However, these agents can also lead to increased vulnerability to infections, development of autoimmune diseases, malignancies, and decreased immunogenicity of vaccinations.

The FDA’s Office of Surveillance has released its findings from an inspection of Biocon’s troubled manufacturing facility in Bangalore, India. ​​The agency listed 10 observations made during the agency’s inspection conducted during May and June of 2017.

Contradicting standard advice given to most patients that the preferred medication is a less-expensive generic medication, rather than a brand-name drug, some health insurers are telling consumers the opposite: they must buy brand-name drugs even when cheaper generics are available.

New York-based Regeneron has announced that it will allow one of its key partnerships with the French drug maker Sanofi to terminate at the end of the year without an extension. The companies’ Antibody Discovery Agreement was responsible for the discovery and development of such drugs as alirocumab (Praluent), dupilumab (Dupixent), and sarilumab (Kevzara).

The FDA’s biosimilar pathway has encouraged a robust product pipeline, but the fact that few biosimilar drugs have been approved by the agency thus far means that there is still some industry uncertainty on the FDA’s approach to this class of products.

Many health systems, payers, and physicians have an expectation that biosimilars will result in immediate and significant cost reductions (similar to what we have seen with generic pharmaceuticals).

A recent survey of 588 Canadian patients revealed that many patients had serious concerns about biosimilar substitution.