With the next big wave of biologic patent expirations soon to wash over the U.S. market, companies developing biosimilars are optimistic about the future. “We’re at a place where we’re seeing really strong uptake of biosimilars, which has resulted in cost savings,” Chad Pettit, executive director of marketing for Amgen Inc.’s biosimilars unit, told BioWorld.
“For those of us who believe in a free market, it is really important that the market works well,” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said March 9 at a public workshop on ensuring a U.S. biologic marketplace that includes sustainable biosimilar and interchangeable competition.
The Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM) is garnering support in its Ninth Circuit challenge to a new California law that seemingly thumbs its nose at a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on so-called pay-for-delay patent settlements.
No matter how effective it is, a drug is worthless if the people who need it can’t afford it. That’s been almost an anthem for patients and policy wonks testifying before U.S. Congress on drug prices.
For the first time since Congress opened the door to biosimilars in 2010, the FDA approved nearly as many biosimilars in 2019 as it did new biologics. As the first decade of biosimilars came to a close, the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) approved 10 biosimilars referencing seven blockbuster biologics, bringing the total number of approved biosimilars to 26.
BEIJING – Chinese biosimilar maker Bio-Thera Solutions Ltd., of Guangzhou, said its BAT-1406 became the first biosimilar referencing Abbvie Inc.'s blockbuster TNF-blocker, Humira (adalimumab), to win a marketing nod in China. It is Bio-Thera's first biosimilar and China's second homegrown biosimilar approved by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA).
Unexplained price increases are a recurring theme whenever a congressional committee discusses U.S. prescription drug prices, and both state and federal lawmakers have proposed measures to force drug manufacturers to justify those increases.
HONG KONG – Samsung Bioepis Co. Ltd., a South Korean biosimilar developer, said the FDA approved its July 2018 application for Hadlima (adalimumab-bwwd), a biosimilar referencing Abbvie Inc. blockbuster TNF-blocker Humira (adalimumab).