Biosimilars

Respondents to the FDA’s questions over biosimilar development did not hold back. So, what is it: product-specific or product class-specific guidance? Or nothing?

In a citizen petition to the FDA, Alvotech has called on the US agency to refrain from approving as interchangeable certain Stelara biosimilars that use a different cell line to its own ustekinumab product – including the Pyzchiva version set to be brought to market by Samsung Bioepis and Sandoz.

All eyes are on Eylea, after Amgen said last week that it would launch the first US biosimilar in the face of ongoing litigation. The California-based player has spoken of its prospects in the wet-AMD space, including a desire to chart its own path amid supply shortages for Avastin.

In a citizen petition to the FDA, Alvotech has called on the US agency to refrain from approving as interchangeable certain Stelara biosimilars that use a different cell line to its own ustekinumab product – including the Pyzchiva version set to be brought to market by Samsung Bioepis and Sandoz.

Sandoz has indicated that Amgen’s recently-announced at-risk US launch of a rival to Eylea doesn’t change its thinking around launch timing for its own FDA-approved aflibercept biosimilar.

Pharmaceutical company managers may view biosimilar erosion of their products’ sales in the same rose-tinted light cast by Humira’s delayed biosimilars in the US. Payers, however, may be more clear sighted.

After a “remarkable performance” in Q2, Samsung Bioepis enjoyed a calm, but still profitable, third quarter.

Alvotech and US marketing partner Teva have celebrated a further approval for their Selarsdi ustekinumab biosimilar rival to Stelara that encompasses a new presentation as well as a label expansion to include adults with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

Only a month after filing their second biosimilar application with Japanese regulators, Alvotech and Fuji have submitted a further one for an undisclosed biosimilar as part of their local partnership.

Biosimilar competition to Xolair, one of the largest monoclonal antibodies coming off patent in the middle of this decade, has been pushed back to an unknown date in the US, as Celltrion awaits news from the US FDA on its biosimilar application.