The Hatch–Waxman Act (officially, The Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984) enabled generic medications to be marketed after branded patent expirations. One of the bill’s cosponsor, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), is now spurring a legislative proposal that would protect reference drug manufacturers from use of the inter partes review (IPR) system. This action would result in further delayed access to lower-cost generics and biologic medicines.
Inter partes review is used by makers of generic drugs and biosimilars to challenge weaker patents. It enables the parties to bypass lengthier litigation through the courts, potentially helping less-expensive drugs reach the market faster than otherwise possible.
Called the Hatch–Waxman Integrity Act, this amendment to the CREATES Act was introduced December 11, 2018 simultaneously into the Senate and the House (by Representative Bill Flores, R-TX). If passed this amendment could significantly limit the ability of generic and biosimilar manufacturers to use the IPR process to speed patent review and litigation.
Seemingly a contradictory stance by Senator Hatch, he believes that the IPR process may too strongly affect the balance between access to medications and biopharmaceutical innovation.
In any case, this proposal would have a very difficult road to passage. First the administration’s current efforts to make biosimilars available as soon as possible runs counter to this bill. Second, the shift to the Democratic majority in the House could be an insurmountable barrier to passage.
In other biosimilars news…Sandoz seems to be entering the biosimilar insulin marketplace, with its agreement to commercialize three different types (insulin aspart, glargine, and lispro) that will be manufactured by the Chinese company Gan & Lee. Sandoz will be responsible for the US and Canada, the EU and Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand, and Japan. In the US, insulin makers can file applications for biosimilar status as of 2020.
Additionally, Pfizer received good news from Europe, receiving a positive recommendation from the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) on its bevacizumab biosimilar Zirabev (reference product, Avastin®).
