Late last week, Amgen and AbbVie settled litigation over when competition for the world’s best-selling biologic Humira (adalimumab) will hit the market, and for the US, the settlement decided on 31 January 2023, while the EU will see competition 16 October 2018. The deal between the two companies means that AbbVie’s Humira, which was first approved by FDA in 2002 and accumulated sales of more than $130 billion in its first 15 years on the market, will be on the U...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday released another piece of the biosimilars puzzle for industry, offering new draft guidance on the type of information a sponsor should obtain about the structural/physicochemical and functional attributes of the reference product, how that information is used in the development of an analytical similarity assessment plan and the statistical approaches recommended for evaluating analytical similarity. The 15-pag...

Welcome to our European Regulatory Roundup, our weekly overview of the top EU regulatory news. Medtech Industry Pressures Brexit Negotiators to Maintain Existing UK-EU Relationship Leaders from three medical device trade groups have called for the UK to retain close ties to the EU after Brexit. The letter asks negotiators on both sides of the Brexit process to keep the UK in the CE-marking regime and for its national regulatory agency to formally take part in...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday approved Amgen’s biosimilar to Roche’s cancer treatment Avastin (bevacizumab). Amgen’s biosimilar was approved under the brand name Mvasi (bevacizumab-awwb). FDA’s approval of Mvasi follows an advisory committee’s unanimous backing of the treatment and is based on review of evidence that included extensive structural and functional characterization, animal study data, human pharmacokinetic and...

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Tuesday that in October it will launch a pilot project for prequalifying biosimilars as part of its work to make some of the most expensive treatments for cancer more widely available in low- and middle-income countries. The first "Expression of Interest," according to WHO, will cover both rituximab (Roche’s Rituxan) and trastuzumab (Roche’s Herceptin), and will be published in October 2017. In Europe, there are five ...

This article presents the contrasting views and continuing debate among health authorities in Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan and the US as well as industry experts regarding conventions for naming biological products and biosimilars. It discusses the World Health Organization's (WHO's) proposal for naming and the importance of a clear distinction between the drugs to avoid confusion and ensure patient safety. Introduction Conventions and regulations for naming biosi...

The launch of the US biosimilars market has been slow since the pathway for approvals was set up in 2010, with only five US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) biosimilar approvals , none of which have been approved as interchangeable biosimilars. And though FDA cannot disclose what applications have been submitted to the agency due to confidentiality issues, FDA’s biosimilars lead Leah Christl said last week at DIA’s annual conference in Chicago that she expect...

The US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) on Thursday voted 14-to-1 in support of approving Pfizer subsidiary Hospira's proposed biosimilar to Amgen's anemia drug Epogen (epoetin alfa) for all four of its indications. While Hopsira's epoetin alfa biosimilar has been approved in Europe since 2007, FDA rejected the company's first attempt at US approval in October 2015, just after Pfizer completed its acquisition of Hospira. At...

Welcome to our European Regulatory Roundup, a weekly overview of top EU regulatory news. Merck Accused of Blocking Remicade Biosimilars, Using Abusive Discount Scheme The UK’s competition watchdog has accused Merck of running an abusive discount scheme to defend Remicade against biosimilar competition. Merck has a chance to respond to the provisional decision before the watchdog rules whether it has violated competition law and faces a fine. Officials at the Co...

Ahead of Friday's deadline for comments, a number of biopharmaceutical companies are seeking further clarification from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on various aspects of the draft biosimilar interchangeability guidance. Background In January, FDA released its  draft guidance on biosimilar interchangeability  for consultation, noting that there is "no single data package that will work for all proposed interchangeable products." The draft calls on co...

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), and Reps. Joe Barton (R-TX) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) as well as 52 other representatives and nine senators sent letters to Tom Price, Health & Human Services secretary, and Seema Verma, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) with concerns about the biosimilar reimbursement policy from a recently issued final rule. The final rule, issued by CMS on 30 October 2015, stipulates that each biosimilar of the same refere...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday announced its fifth biosimilar approval: Samsung Bioepis’ Renflexis (infliximab-abda), an intravenous infusion for multiple indications. This is the second FDA approval for a biosimilar to Johnson & Johnson’s Remicade (the first was Pfizer and Celltrion’s Inflectra (infliximab-dyyb)), though both Inflectra and Renflexis have been approved as biosimilars but not as interchangeable biosimilars. The shift in the...