The European Commission has approved AbbVie’s Aquipta as migraine prophylaxis for adult patients, making it the first daily oral treatment of its class to be approved in the EU for the prevention of both chronic and episodic migraines. Several calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) antibodies are administered subcutaneously or via intravenous infusions. But there is a preference among patients for oral therapies, says Dawn Carlson, vice president, Neuroscience Development at AbbVie, in an interview with Pharmaceutical Technology. Lundbeck’s CGRP antibody Vyepti (eptinezumab), is administered through intravenous infusions, while Amgen’s Aimovig (erenumab) is injected subcutaneously. The approval of Aquipta is based on the results of the two Phase III studies—ADVANCE (NCT03777059) and PROGRESS (NCT03855137), which both met their primary endpoint of a statistically significant reduction in mean monthly migraine days versus placebo, per the 17 August announcement. In the PROGRESS trial, patients in the 60mg Aquipta cohort reported a 6.8-day reduction in ...
With its blockbuster eye drug Eylea, Regeneron is already juggling between a recent FDA rejection and new competition. Meanwhile, biosimilar players are also eying a piece of the pie. Tuesday, Novartis’ Sandoz said its biosimilar to Eylea showed no clinically meaningful differences with the originator in a phase 3 trial in patients with wet macular degeneration. The two versions were therapeutically equivalent in improving the best vision that patients can achieve. Sandoz now expects to file the Eylea biosimilar in the U.S. and EU in the coming months. The Sandoz drug is only the latest copycat to be closing in on Eylea. Viatris was the first to file an Eylea biosimilar in the U.S. in 2021. That asset now belongs to Biocon Biologics through a $3 billion transaction. In addition, the partnership between Formycon and Coherus BioSciences filed its biosimilar in June, followed on the heels by a separate filing ...
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has reached a settlement with Formycon and Fresenius over their Stelara biosimilar FYB202, setting its US launch date to 15 April 2025. The companies confirmed that they are on track to submit the biosimilar’s biologics license application (BLA) later this year, based on the 7 August announcement. This marks the third settlement reached by J&J and pharma companies that are trying to market Stelara’s biosimilars this year so far. In May, J&J settled its patent lawsuit with Amgen, setting the biosimilar’s launch to no later than 1 January 2025. A month later, J&J reached a settlement with the producers Alvotech and Teva Pharmaceuticals, with a US licence entry date for their Stelara biosimilar AVT04 of no later than 21 February 2025. Also known as ustekinumab, Stelara was first approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of adult patients with moderate to ...
Published: Jul 28, 2023 By Tristan Manalac Pictured: Biogen sign/The Boston Globe via Getty, John Tlumacki Biogen is dropping $7.3 billion in cash to acquire Texas-based Reata Pharmaceuticals aimed at bolstering its neurological and rare disease businesses, the companies announced Friday. Reata, whose shares soared 51% in premarket trading following the buyout news, recently won the FDA’s approval for Skyclarys (omaveloxolone), the first and so far only authorized treatment for Friedrich’s ataxia in the U.S. Reata is currently working on launching Skyclarys, which it will price at $370,000 per year. Under the terms of the agreement, Biogen will pay a per-share price of $172.50, which represents an approximately 58% premium to Reata’s closing price Friday. Biogen will make the payment in cash, supplemented by the issuance of term debt. The companies expect to close the deal in the fourth quarter of 2023, though it must first pass the heightened scrutiny ...
An approval from the U.S. FDA doesn’t guarantee a green light overseas—a lesson Mirati Therapeutics has learned the hard way after European regulators rebuffed the company’s flagship KRAS inhibitor Krazati. Friday, Mirati revealed that the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) had spurned the company’s conditional marketing authorization application for Krazati, also known as adagrasib, to treat patients with KRAS G12C-mutated advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In a release, Mirati said it “disagrees with the opinion” and intends to file for a formal re-examination. Once considered an undruggable target, KRAS now has two FDA-approved therapies competing in a potential blockbuster cancer market in the United States. After Amgen won an accelerated nod for its rival KRAS inhibitor Lumakras in May 2021, Mirati entered the fray with Krazati—the biotech’s first commercial product—in December. While Amgen’s drug has suffered a sequential sales decline in the U.S., Mirati’s med recently surprised ...
Pictured: Johnson & Johnson Sign in Silicon Valley/Shutterstock, Michael Vi Johnson & Johnson exceeded Wall Street expectations in its second quarter performance. The healthcare products giant posted sales of $25.5 billion in its earnings report on Thursday. Worldwide sales numbers reflected a 6.3% growth for J&J with revenue close to $1 billion higher than analysts expected, thanks in particular to a nearly 10% increase in its medtech sales. Medtech has been on the rebound since patients have returned to non-emergent surgeries like knee and hip replacements, which saw a significant drop during the pandemic. Operational sales for the company’s pharma arm, suffering growth points due to dwindling COVID-19 vaccine sales, was up 3.9%. The second quarter posted no U.S. sales of J&J’s COVID vaccine, with no domestic revenue expected beyond the $747 million from outside the U.S. reported last quarter. Its government contracts are now complete. Primary growth drivers were J&J’s oncology and immunology ...
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has requested more information and documentary material regarding Pfizer’s proposed $43bn acquisition of Seagen. The second request is a standard review procedure by which the FTC and the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice investigate mergers and acquisitions. If a second request is submitted, the law forbids merging companies from completing a transaction until they have substantially complied with the additional investigatory request. The Pfizer/Seagen agreement, which was originally announced in March this year, would mark a significant boost to the US pharma’s oncology pipeline. At the time of the announcement, Pfizer’s oncology portfolio included 24 approved drugs, while Seagen’s included Adcetris for lymphomas, Padcev for bladder cancers, Tivdak for cervical cancer, and Tukysa for breast and colorectal cancers. The deal would also grant Pfizer access to Seagen’s drug development pipeline as well as its proprietary ...
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is reviewing data on the potential effects of high-profile glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs), including Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic (semaglutide), Saxenda (liraglutide) and Wegovy (semaglutide) in causing suicidal thoughts and thoughts of self-harm. The EMA has previously approved these drugs for weight loss and/or as treatments for type 2 diabetes. The EMA investigation comes after the Icelandic Medicines Agency flagged reports of suicidal thoughts and self-injury in patients taking Ozempic and Saxenda. Authorities are so far investigating 150 reports of possible cases of self-injury and suicidal thoughts. Led by the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC), the EMA evaluation aims to find if these symptoms are linked to the medicines themselves, are unrelated or caused by other underlying factors. The EMA reports that more than 20 million patients in the EU have so far used liraglutide and semaglutide. GLP-1RAs are a rapidly growing ...
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a complete response letter (CRL) for Alvotech’s Humira biosimilar AVT02, further delaying the company’s plans to launch the drug in a landmark year. The agency rejected the drug’s biologics licence application (BLA) over deficiencies seen at one of the company’s manufacturing facilities in Reykjavik, Iceland, according to Alvotech’s press release on 28 June. While the FDA did not make a note of any other deficiencies in the BLA, issues related to the Reykjavik facility need to be resolved to facilitate the drug’s potential approval. This marks the second time that the FDA has rejected AVT02’s BLA this year. In April, the regulator issued a CRL to Alvotech, which also noted the deficiencies seen in the company’s Reykjavik plant. Prior to that, the company received a CRL from the FDA over deficiencies in the plant in September 2022. Alvotech plans to resubmit ...
By Tristan Manalac https://www.biospace.com/ Pictured: Atopic dermatitis patient scratches their arm/iStock The company announced Tuesday that topline data from the Phase IIb STREAM-AD trial showed that Sanofi’s investigational antibody amlitelimab met the study’s primary outcome and strongly eased symptoms in patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis. After 16 weeks of treatment, patients in the amlitelimab group saw significant improvements in their average Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI) scores compared to placebo. Amlitelimab retained its statistical edge over the placebo across all four studied doses. Sanofi’s candidate also cleared the study’s key secondary endpoints, including biomarker measurements, which suggested that amlitelimab had therapeutic effects on both type 2 and non-type 2 inflammatory pathways, according to the company’s news release. Improvements in primary and secondary measures persisted through 24 weeks of follow-up. These Phase IIb results support amlitelimab’s mechanism of action and indicate that “targeting OX40-Ligand has the potential to provide a ...
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