HONG KONG – Celltrion Inc., of South Korea, and Hong Kong-based conglomerate Nan Fung Group Holdings Ltd. said they have built a joint venture named Vcell Healthcare Ltd., geared toward the Chinese market. 

HONG KONG – Supported by the municipal government of Chongqing in China, a joint venture between South Korean drugmaker Binex Co. Ltd. and Chinese pharmaceutical company Chongqing Zein Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. will be set up in the third quarter of this year.

Unintended consequences. It’s a term that’s bandied about all too often in Washington these days, as it’s become the PC way for lawmakers and agencies like the FDA to save face when they have to admit, “Oops, we didn’t think that one through very well” when confronted with the negative impacts of the laws and regulations they’ve created. A new unintended consequence could be in the offing as the FDA extends its practice of label carve-outs to biosimilars. A familiar feature of the generics scene, carve-outs have allowed the agency to approve a knock-off even though the reference drug may...

It’s not every day that drugmakers get a chance to take on an entirely new market. Biosimilars are offering that opportunity. And hundreds of drugmakers, research institutions and governments are hoping to make the most of it. The result is more than 700 follow-on biologics (FOBs) already approved or in the global pipeline, according to a new report by BioWorld. Those entering the field are as diverse as the FOBs they’re developing. Biologics pioneers, big pharma and generic drugmakers are being joined by “pure-play” start-ups, conglomerates, public-private consortia, contract manufacturers, contract research organizations, government agencies, nonprofits and research institutions. Some...

It’s 1984. The year opens with the demise of Ma Bell, as the Bell System is broken into smaller, regional telephone companies. The idea is to end Ma’s nationwide monopoly, but the result is a handful of smaller monopolies since there still is no telephone competition. The Soviet Union leads a boycott of the Summer Olympics being held in Los Angeles, presumably as payback for the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games, which was, in turn, a response to the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Even though Time named the computer the “Machine of the Year” two years ago, personal computers...

"If you plan to be around five or 10 years from now, you have to have a Chinese strategy." That poignant comment in a BioWorld Today article came from Joshua Boger in 2011. The founder and former CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., and now executive chairman of Alkeus Pharmaceuticals Inc., had just returned from China where Shanghai Syntheall Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., a manufacturing subsidiary of Wuxi Apptec Co. Ltd., is the manufacturing site for starting materials for Vertex's hepatitis C drug Incivek (telaprevir). A combined massive government investment, a growing appetite for capitalism, and a shift from pharmaceutical industry service...

What’s in a biosimilar name? That depends on whether the vial is half empty or half full. Seeing it as half full, many generic makers focus on the similarities between a follow-on and its reference biologic. Because of those similarities, they say biosimilars and their reference product should share the same international nonproprietary name (INN) – as is the practice with traditional generic drugs. That’s the argument the Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) made in the citizen petition it submitted to the FDA earlier this month. Used to cashing in on the success of a small molecule brand drug by sharing...

Despite what the New York Times and its echoers have said, makers of innovative biologics have legitimate reason to sound alarms about automatic substitution of biosimilars that have not proven their interchangeability – and it’s not just because of the potential impact to their bottom line. That point was driven home by the recent recall of Affymax Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s Omontys (peginesatide). Although Omontys is not a biosimilar, the unexpected postmarketing reports of serious hypersensitivity reactions linked to the erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) served as a reminder of the variability of biologics, their sensitivity to minute manufacturing changes...

When the FDA’s Rachel Sherman said the biggest challenge the agency faces with biosimilars is educating the public, she wasn’t exaggerating. An article in the New York Times shows just how big of a challenge it’s going to be. The article “Biotech Firms, Billions at Risk, Lobby States to Limit Generics” slams biotechs for encouraging states to adopt legislation limiting the automatic substitution of biosimilars, which the Times repeatedly called “generics.” As BioWorld Today reported, most of the bills being considered by states would require physician notification of what was substituted, enhanced recordkeeping and an opportunity for doctors (and, in...

I recently took a few months off from daily deadlines to explore the evolving world of biosimilars for the newest BioWorld Data report, The Biosimilars Game: A Scorecard for Opportunities, Threats and Critical Strategies. It was quite an eye-opening adventure. Even though I’ve been covering biosimilars for BioWorld for a few years now, I was surprised at the impact these follow-on biologics (FOBs) are having throughout the world, given that the European Union (EU) is continuing its two-year approval slump and no biosimilar candidates have stepped up to bat yet in Canada or the U.S. Some of my surprise undoubtedly...