Shares in Bavarian Nordic A/S fell sharply after its development partner Johnson & Johnson terminated collaboration and license agreements in hepatitis B virus (HBV) and human papillomavirus (HPV). Shares in the Danish company (OMX:BAVA) fell nearly 13% to DKK 115.75 (US$16.39) following the announcement. The partnerships, with J&J’s Janssen pharma unit, began with a $187 million tie-up in 2014, to develop an Ebola vaccine that is now approved in the EU. That led to an $171 million HPV vaccine research agreement in December 2015 and an $879 million deal covering HIV-1 and HBV research in 2017.
A risk of rare but potentially life-threatening blood clots in combination with low platelet levels after a jab of Johnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 vaccine has convinced the U.S. FDA to limit its use. The vaccine is now authorized in the U.S. only for adults who wouldn't otherwise be vaccinated and those who can't or shouldn't, for medical reasons, get another approved vaccine. Through March 18, 2022, the FDA and CDC have identified 60 confirmed cases, including nine fatal cases of the condition, called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome – a rate of 3.23 cases per million doses of vaccine administered.
The U.S. FDA has been scrutinizing surgical meshes for safety considerations for longer than a decade, but litigation continues to dot the legal landscape. An appeals court in the state of California decreed recently that Johnson & Johnson of Franklin Lakes, N.J. must pay more than $300 million over allegations that its Ethicon subsidiary had downplayed to patients the risks associated with its pelvic meshes, but J&J said its next step is to appeal the outcome in the state’s highest court.
The Medicare new technology add-on (NTAP) program is a vital source of reimbursement rates for novel technologies, and several NTAP applications were extended by a year in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That extension is set to expire for several key products, including the Eluvia drug eluting stent by Boston Scientific Corp., of Marlborough, Mass., and the Spinejack system by Stryker Corp., of Kalamazoo, Mich., forcing these companies to amortize their R&D costs at a more conventional pace.
Deciding not to roll the dice this time, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and its U.S.-based Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos. removed themselves April 18 from an ongoing opioid trial in West Virginia by agreeing to a $99 million settlement with the state.
Although broader use of biosimilars in the U.S. would reduce Medicare Part D spending and save beneficiaries nearly $2 million in out-of-pocket costs, plan formularies continue to discourage the use of the more affordable follow-ons, according to a recent report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General.
Four biopharma companies are pooling some of their chemical data and making it public for the first time as part of the pioneering stage of a European effort to reduce the need for animal testing in drug development.
As congressional scrutiny of the U.S. FDA’s accelerated approval path continues, the agency is focusing research efforts into appropriate disclosure on direct-to-consumer websites about a drug’s accelerated approval and the status of confirmatory trials. Previous research by the FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) found that 27% of DTC websites providing information about a drug with accelerated approval don’t disclose that the products are on the market through accelerated approval.
While a number of companies cited continued supply chain issues in recent investor calls and earnings reports, few med-tech leaders have expressed concerns about serious disruption to operations or loss of revenue because of the destruction wrought by the invasion of Ukraine or the associated sanctions on Russia. Most companies derive less than 1% of their revenue from the two countries.
Big pharma sponsors of clinical trials in Ukraine are putting studies on hold in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus as the conflict continues into its third week. As revealed by BioWorld last week, hundreds of clinical trials were being conducted in the two countries at the time Russian President Vladimir Putin gave orders to invade Ukraine on Feb. 20.
