Johnson & Johnson has hopped on the litigation bandwagon, becoming the fourth large drugmaker to sue the U.S. government over drug price negotiations in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).In U.S. District Court in New Jersey, J&J claimed (PDF) that price negotiations by Medicare would violate the First and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb and Astellas have made the same argument in separate lawsuits. Last week in federal court in Washington, D.C., Merck applied more pressure, filing for a decision in its case without a trial. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and industry association PhRMA have also filed suits with similar claims. “The government is forcing (J&J) to provide its innovative, patented medicines on pricing terms that by law must be significantly below market prices,” J&J said in a release. “This would upend the current self-sustaining cycle of pharmaceutical innovation that provides patients with access ...
Pictured: A silhouette of a woman sitting on the floor with her head in her hands/iStock, simpson33 Neumora Therapeutics is making big moves this week. On Tuesday the young biotech announced the initiation of a Phase III program for its potential depression treatment along with a new CEO to lead the way. The nearly two-year-old startup posted statistically significant results for treating moderate-to-severe major depressive disorder (MDD) in its Phase II trial of navacaprant, a kappa opioid receptor (KOR) antagonist. Initiated by BlackThorn Therapeutics prior to its acquisition by Neumora, the trial was amended to include those more serious MDD patients, the population in which it appears to be most effective. In moderate-to-severe patients, navacaprant had statistically significant results in lowering patients’ 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression score by 3 points at week 4 and 2.8 points by week 8. Across all patients, which included mildly depressed patients, navacaprant did not achieve ...
Biopharma companies, including Sanofi, AbbVie and Virax Biolabs, are finding significant business opportunities in the Middle East, particularly in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. These countries have emerged as attractive markets for novel therapies, driven by growing populations with increasing incidences of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The Middle East is emerging as a key healthcare market, with an increasing demand for innovative healthcare solutions, particularly after the region struggled to meet the challenges brought on by the pandemic, said Cameron Shaw, chief operating officer for Virax Biolabs, which recently made a deal to set up a regional headquarters in the Dubai Science Park in the UAE. “The UAE was hit very hard by the COVID pandemic, similarly to how everyone in the world was affected,” Shaw told BioSpace. This is partly due to the high prevalence of diabetes and obesity in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, he ...
Boehringer Ingelheim’s new autoinjector pen administering Cyltezo (adalimumab-adbm) is now available to patients living with chronic inflammatory diseases in the US. The Cyltezo pen autoinjector, which is a biosimilar to AbbVie’s blockbuster Humira (adalimumab), received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2023. Boehringer Ingelheim originally received FDA approval for the drug in 2017, and then further approval as an interchangeable biosimilar in 2021. The 40mg/0.8ml pre-filled Cyltezo Pen will be offered in two, four and six-pack options. AbbVie has enjoyed a prosperous monopoly of the adalimumab market with Humira generating $21.2bn in global sales in 2022. With several biosimilars likely to flood the market in 2023 and the company losing exclusivity, AbbVie said it expects its sales of the drug to decline 37% in 2023. Challengers to Humira are now vying for market share. Organon and Samsung Bioepsis launched an autoinjector pen on 1 July, ...
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 ...
Novartis has entered into an agreement to acquire Chinook Therapeutics for approximately $3.5bn, marking a notable expansion to the Swiss drugmaker’s renal pipeline. The deal grants Novartis access to the US biopharma’s two late-stage candidates in development for Immunoglobulin A Nephropathy (IgAN), a rare and progressive kidney disease that mostly affects young adults. IgAN, which Novartis says currently lacks targeted treatment options, affects up to 21 people per million per year in the US, with a higher rate among Asian populations. The most advanced of the two assets is atrasentan, an oral endothelin A receptor antagonist that Chinook bought from AbbVie at the beginning of 2020. The candidate is currently in phase 3 development for IgAN, with a readout from the study expected in the fourth quarter of this year. The second candidate, zigakibart (BION-1301), is a subcutaneously administered anti-APRIL monoclonal antibody that is expected to enter phase 3 development ...
Another biosimilar product copying Johnson & Johnson’s top-selling drug Stelara may enter the U.S. market without a patent infringement challenge by early 2025 thanks to a new settlement.J&J has signed an agreement granting Alvotech and Teva a license for their proposed Stelara biosimilar, AVT04, in the U.S. The settlement allows the biosimilar makers to launch their version no later than Feb. 21, 2025, the companies said Monday. The new Stelara biosim deal follows another one J&J recently inked with Amgen, which gives the latter a license to launch its copycat no later than Jan. 1, 2025. Like Amgen, Alvotech and Teva haven’t gotten the FDA’s blessing for AVT04. The pair in January said the FDA had accepted its application with a decision targeted for the second half of this year. A verdict for Amgen’s version is expected by the end of the third quarter. Settling those biosimilar entry dates is ...
By Tristan Manalac On June 14, the FDA is set to release its verdict on Ironwood Pharmaceuticals’ supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA), in which the company proposes to use Linzess (linaclotide) for the treatment of functional constipation in kids and teens aged 6–17 years. Ironwood is developing and commercializing Linzess in collaboration with AbbVie, following a 2015 agreement with Allergan. AbbVie acquired Allergan in 2019. Linzess is a guanylate cyclase-C (GC-C) agonist that works by binding to the GC-C receptor within the intestinal epithelium, which in turn increases fluid secretion, faster transit and lower pain-sensing in the intestine. The drug won the FDA’s approval in August 2012 to treat patients with chronic idiopathic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome with constipation in adults. Linzess’s label bears a boxed warning for risk of serious dehydration when used in children under two years of age. Ironwood supported Linzess’ sNDA with data from a ...
South Korea’s Samsung Biologics has captured a $411 million contract to manufacture biosimilars for pharma giant Pfizer.Under the deal, Samsung has pledged “additional capacity for large-scale manufacturing for a multi-product biosimilars portfolio covering oncology, inflammation, and immunology.” The company described the deal as a “long-term” arrangement. Pfizer’s biosimilar portfolio features copycats to Roche’s cancer trio of Rituxan, Avastin and Herceptin plus biosimilar versions of Johnson & Johnson’s Remicade and Amgen’s Neupogen. The Samsung partnership will likely also include production of Pfizer’s biosimilar to AbbVie’s Humira, The Korea Herald reports, citing industry experts. AbbVie recorded $21.24 billion in sales of Humira last year. Amgen is already marketing a Humira copycat, but Pfizer and many other players are set to enter the market this year. In a financial filing, Samsung Biologics put the value of the Pfizer deal at $411 million, making it the biggest of its nature for the company and ...
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