Biosimilars
Europe is biosimilar testing ground, but US will be key market
As the Federal Trade Commission weighs into the biosimilars debate in the US and the Obama administration considers seven years of market exclusivity enough for brand biologicals, new research by independent market analyst Datamonitor predicts that the success of the emerging biosimilars industry hinges on access to this market. With Japan receiving approval for its first biosimilar and the US moving ever closer to the establishment of an approval pathway, the biosimilars market is set for imminent expansion.
Biocon and Mylan join forces in biosimilars
Strong growth prospects for the global biosimilars space over the next decade are bringing together the world's third-largest US-based generic drugmaker Mylan and Biocon, India's second-largest biotech company.
US: Biotech drugs need only seven years protection
Biological drugs should be subject to generic competition in the US after seven years, the Obama administration said, calling it a ‘generous compromise’. Brand-name companies have lobbied for 12 to 14 years of exclusivity, while Mr Waxman proposed only five. As reported by Bloomberg News, access to cheaper copies of medicines made by biotechnology companies is ‘a key element’ in reducing healthcare costs, White House officials said in a letter to Representative Henry Waxman. “Lengthy periods of exclusivity will harm patients by diminishing innovation and unnecessarily delaying access to affordable drugs,” it said.
Sandoz receives approval for first-ever Japanese biosimilar
Sandoz has received marketing authorisation for the first ever Japanese biosimilar, recombinant human growth hormone somatropin. The precedent-setting decision further reinforces Sandoz's global leadership position in the rapidly-emerging market for biosimilars, or follow-on versions of existing state-of-the-art biopharmaceuticals.
KBI BioPharma starts US PER.C6 cell line generation service
US contract services firm KBI Biopharma announced on 25 June 2009 that it has started using the PER.C6 platform for cell line generation as part of its offering to meet growing demand for biomanufacturing services, whether they are to produce biologicals, biosimilars or vaccines.
BIO wants to delay biodissimilars as long as possible
Biotech drugs are big revenue earners. Their sales growth rate may have slipped back into single figures last year, but according to IMS Health data they still accounted for more than 37% of the growth in the US pharmaceutical market last year, with revenues of around US$85 billion (Euros 60.8 billion), and biotech stands to take an even larger share of the market in future.
Obama wants to introduce US biosimilars pathway
US President Barack Obama plans to fund part of his healthcare reform plans by backing an approval pathway for generic biologicals. As reported by Christopher Spillane in Scrip News, Mr Obama lobbied the American Medical Association to support proposals to overhaul US healthcare in a far-reaching address.
US Federal Trade Commission issues report on biosimilars
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a report entitled Follow-on Biologic Drug Competition, which examines whether the price of biological drugs could be reduced by competition from so-called ‘follow-on biologics’ (FOBs) or biosimilars.
New expression systems create competitive advantage
New, alternative expression systems in various stages of development are showing their viability in large-scale protein manufacture. The economics and increased simplicity of these new platforms make them better alternatives to the currently dominant E. coli, yeast and CHO systems.
High yields and human-like glycosylation with DSM’s technology
DSM says that studies done at its R & D laboratories in Groningen, The Netherlands, show that its extreme density (XD) technology boosts bioreactor productivity and titers of mammalian cell culture processes for protein and antibody production. The studies show that the yields from Chinese hamster ovary cell cultures can be increased 5-10 fold over their previous fed-batch processes using only off the shelf, commercially available media.
