In the last few weeks, we’ve seen a hail of
biosimilars-related news, some of which significant, more having limited
impact.
Building upon the success of its infliximab biosimilar uptake, Magellan Rx Management announced June 4 that it will extend its medical pharmacy program to the new oncology biosimilars (i.e., rituximab, trastuzumab, and bevacizumab) when launched. Magellan Rx had announced that its program saved 34% when it shifted utilization to infliximab biosimilars. This action was announced after UnitedHealthcare decided that it would prefer the reference biologic agents rather than the biosimilars starting in July, which caused much reaction.
In early May, the Food and Drug Administration (finally!)
released its final guidance on interchangeability. Although
there were no surprises in this document, it does lay out a definitive path for
gaining an interchangeable designation. Other than Boehringer Ingelheim’s
intention to seek the label for Cytelzo®, no other biosimilar
manufacturer has publicly stated interchangeability as a goal. Boehringer
cannot launch its biosimilar adalimumab, regardless of its interchangeability
status until June 2023, so the strategic importance may be longer term. Switching
biosimilars (for a reference product or for another biosimilar, with or
without this designation) may be a more pressing question.
The Biosimilars Forum has launched an educational campaign on how aligning incentives in Medicare part B can save billions of dollars through the enhanced use of biosimilars. The industry group’s proposal includes using a shared savings model in which providers can receive savings bonuses when using lower-cost biosimilars. In addition, it is lobbying to increase provider reimbursement for prescribing biosimilars. This would be in the form of a greater percentage add-on rate in addition to the average sales price (ASP) paid for the therapy. These two actions could offset the current reimbursement disincentive, where providers bill higher amounts for prescribing higher cost (and likely higher rebate) drugs, currently at ASP + 6%. The organizations also call on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to reduce patient out-of-pocket costs when a Part B biosimilar is used.
The Association of Affordable Medicines has also been focused on the issue of biosimilars in Part B medications, as well as on the potential implications of the US–Mexico–Canada Agreement. Passage of the agreement (still awaiting ratification on Capitol Hill) could have the unintended consequence of extending exclusivity for reference biologics; all other federal regulatory efforts are moving towards cutting delays in access to lower-cost biologics. The trade agreement therefore negatively affects the biosimilar industry, which frankly, cannot survive additional barriers erected in its path. The Association is hoping that harmonizing Mexico’s, Canada’s, and America’s biologic exclusivity period can be modified before the treaty is ratified.
It seems that AbbVie has won the battle and the war. The last remaining holdout in the fight to bring a biosimilar adalimumab to market before 2023 has capitulated, as AbbVie announced May 14 that Boehringer Ingelheim agreed to the terms of a licensing arrangement. This agreement allows Boehringer Ingelheim to enter the marketplace July 1, 2023, getting a slight jump on some other licensees, but it effectively ends the protracted patent litigation that Boehringer hoped to win.
In an interview with BR&R, Molly Burich, Boehringer Ingelheim’s Director, Public Policy, Biosimilars and Pipeline, told us in October 2018, “We are committed to making Cyltezo® available to US patients as soon as possible and certainly before 2023.”
WHICH COMPANIES HAVE SIGNED LICENSING DEALS WITH ABBVIE?
Company/Partner
Drug Name
Launch Date
Amgen
Amjevita*
January 2023
Samsung Bioepis/Merck
SB5
June 2023
Boehringer Ingelheim
Cytelzo*
July 2023
Mylan/Fujifilm Kyowa Kirin Biologics
Hulio
August 2023
Sandoz
Hyrimoz*
September 2023
Fresenius Kabi
MSB11022
September 2023
Pfizer
TBD
November 2023
Momenta
M923
December 2023
Coherus
CH-1420
December 2023
*Received FDA
Approval.
However,
at that time, Ms. Burich also disclosed that Cyltezo would not be
commercialized in Europe; in October, the stampede of biosimilar manufacturers had
just left the starting gate. In addition, Boehringer had earlier decided to
drop plans to develop other biosimilars in the pipeline and focus solely on
Cyltezo. That would seem to leave Boehringer out in the cold until July 2023.
In response to BR&R’s
query, Susan Holz, Boehringer’s Director
of Communications, Specialty Care, provided the following statement: “As
we previously shared, at this point in time, our focus remains on providing
patient access to our biosimilar Cyltezo in the US, and future biosimilars
activities will be driven out of this market. Boehringer Ingelheim continuously
evaluates our business portfolio, and we assess potential strategic
partnerships to help enhance our pipeline and development capabilities. As you
know, we have stopped development activities for the rest of the world, and I
am not able to comment on specifics regarding our biosimilar in- or
out-licensing strategy.”
Boehringer Ingelheim had
reported that it is seeking the interchangeability designation for its adalimumab
biosimilar. In the possible scenario where Cyltezo won its patent challenge,
and gained the interchangeability designation from the FDA (note that FDA only issued
its final interchangeability guidelines draft this week), the marketing potential
was rosy indeed. However, suppose the FDA approves the interchangeability label
for Cyltezo. It cannot leverage it until after Amgen’s and Samsung Bioepis’
adalimumab biosimilars have launched. Will it have the same advantage? That’s
difficult to say. Payers will be anxious to grab immediate savings on this
product, and interchangeability may not be considered such a great benefit.
That is, in four years, will payers routinely switch available biosimilar
agents anyway? My guess is that health plans and insurers will be leaning in
that direction.
On the other hand, it will be easier to automatically switch patients in nearly every state. That lever will only be used if Boehringer gives payers a real reason to use it—a significantly better deal than the existing options. AbbVie offered huge discounts (on the order of 80% in some countries) in an effort to hang on to some marketshare once biosimilars were available in the EU. After all, why worry about interchangeability and switching when you can continue to use Humira® at a 75% discount?
Ms. Holz told BR&R, “In regards to interchangeability, this is a very important issue for many stakeholders, as it is the catalyst for automatic substitution at the pharmacy level, which in turn may help drive efficient use of biosimilars and maximize the cost-saving potential of these important medicines.” She added, “We were very pleased to see the Agency finalized interchangeability guidance that retained the appropriate balance between a high-bar to prove interchangeability and product-specific flexibility to make such a status attainable.”
In the next four years, the price of Humira will undoubtedly rise. This will mean that savings gained in 2023 will be little more than money lost to the system over the previous 48 months. As significantly, it represents tens of billions of dollars into AbbVie’s bottom line from a product that was approved in the US 17 years ago.
In the biosimilars arena, at least in the US, history seems
to be truncated. Policy changes occur in rapid fire succession these days, and
access scenarios don’t evolve—they just happen or they don’t! Along this brief
journey, I’ve taken the opportunity to focus on some of the sign posts that
were exceedingly poor maps for navigating the future.
One of the first blogs I wrote for The Center for Biosimilars in early 2016, involved a defeat for Amgen in its patent litigation with AbbVie regarding Humira®. No one was sure what the implications of this decision would be. Amgen was on the road to gaining approval of the first biosimilar adalimumab. The payer and investment community sensed momentum building towards the imminent takedown of the number 1 biologic in terms of sales. I referenced 2016 Humira revenue estimates of $14 billion for AbbVie, and mentioned two other prospective biosimilar makers—Baxalta and Momenta—being hot on Amgen’s heels.
In that same article, many in the investment community was under the belief that a US marketed adalimumab biosimilar would be available by 2020. Instead, January 2023 is looking more inevitable. I wrote, “The investment community believes that Amgen will come out on top; they believe that AbbVie will have $6 billion—not $18 billion—in Humira sales by 2020.”
I’m not sure that I could have been more wrong in my
assumptions or sentiments, thinking that AbbVie’s maze of 70 patents (at the
time) could be severely damaged at that time by the process to challenge patents.
This may happen today through Boehringer’s efforts, but I wouldn’t count on it.
The other major players don’t have the stomach for fighting this battle.
In 2017, Baxalta and Momenta have dropped out of the biosimilar contention for Humira’s marketshare, replaced by Sandoz, Boehringer, Coherus, Samsung Bioepis, and perhaps others. Baxalta and Momenta , one being taken over by Shire and the other facing financial realities.
Unfortunately, it will take a miracle, in the form of a Boehringer victory or even less likely, adoption of Dr. Peter Bach’s biologic pricing proposal, to get adalimumab to the payer market. The fact that the proposal that Dr. Bach and his colleagues at Memorial Sloan Kettering laid out received as much attention as it did tells quite a bit about our serious frustration today with access to biosimilar savings.
Of course, very few actions taken by the current Administration have yet to be implemented. These are intended to bolster the biosimilar industry and move from promised to actual savings. However, the signs are telling me that we’re not in an evolutionary phase of biosimilar development–an extinction event may be around the corner.
Only Boehringer Ingelheim remains as a biosimilar maker who
has an approved version of adalimumab but who has not signed on with AbbVie.
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 has filed the suit with the other
manufacturers and AbbVie, claiming that by their actions, they are trying to “divide
the market for adalimumab between Europe and the United States,” according to
the Center for Biosimilars report.
This is an interesting question. The individual motivations of the first companies to come to agreement with AbbVie (Amgen, then Samsung Bioepis) included an end to interminable patent legislation in the US. They wanted the ability to immediately plan launches in Europe (starting in October 2018). The motivations of most other subsequent signees almost certainly was to not forfeit marketshare in Europe, which was needed to help sustain biosimilar development efforts for the US market. In fact, many of these prospective US manufacturers already had received approval in the EU.
AbbVie’s principal patents on Humira® expired in Europe in October 2018. The last of the principal patents are supposed to expire around 2023 in the US anyway. Was it necessary to arrange serial US launches as demonstrated in this link? Would patent litigation have continued well past the supposed patent expiration date? Knowing AbbVie, this is likely. Their several patents involving adalimumab use to treat individual diseases would provide AbbVie a basis for forging ahead with lawsuits that would have gained them additional billions of dollars in sales while the suits meandered toward conclusion.
Does this mean that access to Humira is accelerated through the signing of the royalty agreements, rather than delayed through acts of collusion? That is difficult to say. Although should the lone holdout—Boehringer Ingelheim—decide that it makes business sense to launch at risk, it could topple the carefully orchestrated structure of the agreements. Amgen believes that it will launch the first adalimumab biosimilar, and experience a few months of exclusivity in the US. At that point, Amgen (and every subsequent adalimumab biosimilar maker) would have to decide whether (1) to do the same or risk losing its advantage, (2) start working towards marketing plan B, or (3) cede the initial marketshare and its billions in revenue and wait it out. If Boehringer obtains its sought after interchangeability designation, that may well speed up the process.
Personally, I find it hard to believe that these individual
acts represent premeditated collusion; although the resulting lack of access to
the many biosimilar versions may look to others as an orchestrated maneuver.
In the absence of really big biosimilar stories with far-reaching implications, let’s start with some interesting bits on biosimilars to begin this week.
First, insulin maker Eli Lilly asked the Food and Drug
Administration a very interesting question, in comments
on the agency’s guidelines on transitional drugs. Lilly requested clarification
of the rules under which it might introduce an authorized brand of insulin
(that is, a lower-priced version of an existing insulin brand). The insulins
are one group of medicines that is scheduled to transition to regulation under
the Public Health Services Act in 2020, and thus be subject to formal biosimilar
competition.
Second, Boehringer Ingelheim, which received FDA approval to market its adalimumab biosimilar Cyltezo® in August 2017, received a positive ruling in its patent litigation case with AbbVie. A federal court judge ruled that AbbVie, which makes the originator product Humira® must turn over all papers related to the Humira patents. This may actually move the court case out of the discovery phase, according to Fierce Healthcare, and potentially closer to an actual, early biosimilar launch. Third, Health Canada has decided not to add a four-character suffix onto the names of its biosimilars and biologics. Instead, it will rely on its specific drug identification number as well as the nonproprietary names to identify medications being taken. This of course, contrasts with the FDA’s practice. The FDA is the only major advanced regulatory system that requires the use of a suffix to distinguish biosimilars and their reference products. And it is not used by providers.
Embroiled in patent litigation, the
partnership of Amgen and Allergan have waited for the opportunity to launch
Mvasi® since September 2017. During this time, the competition has
not been stagnant, with Pfizer moving towards an FDA decision. The next 6 months
may prove critical, but when will providers, patients, and payers have access
to Avastin® biosimilars? That may be based more on guesstimates than
on fact.
WHAT DO WE KNOW?
(1) Amgen and Allergan received its FDA approval for Mvasi (bevacizumab-awwb) September 17, 2017. The approval covered all of the reference product’s indications. The drug was approved for use by the European Medicines Agency in January 2018.
(2) In court
documents filed during its patent battle with Genentech, Amgen had
originally stated that it planned to begin marketing Mvasi once the last 8
patents it considered valid expired on December 18, 2018.
(3) Amgen then revised this potential launch
date, according to the court filing, saying that it could launch several months
earlier, on April 5, 2018.
(4) In either case, the launch has not
occurred. According to the Purple
Book, Avastin was first approved by the FDA February 26, 2004. That is
approximately 15 years, and counting.
(5) The US District Court handling
the litigation is expressing impatience
with the back and forth between the two parties (read the Judge’s concluding
remarks). A trial court date was set for June
2020.
(6) Pfizer completed its phase 3 trial for PF-06439535 in
nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer and filed for FDA approval in August
2018. An FDA decision is expected in the second quarter of this year.
(7) In November 2018, Boehringer Ingelheim completed its phase 3 trial in lung cancer for BI 695502.
(8) Samsung Bioepis completed its phase 3 trial in lung cancer in October 2018 (compared with EU-licensed Avastin).
(9) In addition, Centus Biotherapeutics is scheduled to complete its phase 3 trial in June 2019 as well.
WHAT WE DON’T REALLY KNOW
So much for what we know. Here are some things we know less well.
At a drug pipeline update at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy in October 2018, Express Scripts’ Aimee Tharaldson, PharmD, Senior Clinical Consultant—Emerging Therapeutics, offered a projected launch date of July 2019. In an E-mail communication with Biosimilars Review & Report, Dr. Tharaldson clarified that this estimate was based on the anticipated expiration of a key patent on Avastin that month.
Aimee Tharaldson, PharmD
When we contacted a senior Amgen executive, he
stated that the company declined to discuss potential launch dates.
Goodwin’s Big Molecule
Watch, which keeps a close eye on biosimilar-related patent litigation,
does not list any ongoing suits between Genentech and Pfizer or Boehringer
Ingelheim regarding Avastin (which may be surprising in itself).
We would anticipate that Pfizer will launch as soon as feasible, if they receive an FDA approval by June. Pfizer has an established record of moving their biosimilars quickly to market (e.g., Inflectra® [with Celltrion], Retacrit®, and Nivestym®).
Samsung Bioepis has not yet revealed their plans around an FDA filing for their investigational biosimilar of bevacizumab.
Boehringer had not yet filed a 351(k) application for approval of BI 695502. Comments by Molly Burich, Director, Public Policy: Biosimilars and Pipeline, in our interview last Fall, made it clear that the company is laser focused on bringing its adalimumab biosimilar (Cytelzo®) to market. In fact, this bevacizumab biosimilar was no longer posted on their pipeline at that time.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
Today, Susan Holz, Director, Communications, Specialty Care, confirmed that the company decided that this agent was not in its strategic plans and it simply allowed the study to be completed. She said, “Boehringer Ingelheim made the decision to terminate all activities related to the BI 695502 program, a biosimilar candidate to Avastin. It is important to note that this decision was not based on any safety or efficacy findings with the investigational medicinal product BI 695502. Boehringer Ingelheim continuously evaluates our business portfolio and assesses potential strategic partnerships to help enhance our pipeline and development capabilities.”
Perhaps several of these unknowns will be
resolved by the end of July, and the clouds will lift a bit. I suspect at that
time, we’ll be much closer to biosimilar access for this biologic, which racked
up $7
billion worldwide in sales in 2017.
On November 28, 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the approval of rituximab-abbs (Truxima™), produced by Celltrion and marketed by Teva.
Approval for this rituximab biosimilar was overwhelmingly recommended by the FDA’s Oncology Drug Advisory Committee by a vote of 16-0 in October. It is the first biosimilar agent approved for the treatment of relapsed or refractory, low grade, or follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma—specifically in adult patients with the CD20+ B-cell variety. The drug makers did not seek approval for the Rituxan’s autoimmune indications, and the FDA did not grant extrapolated approval for them.
According to the FDA’s announcement, the most common side effects of Truxima are infusion reactions, fever, abnormally low level of lymphocytes in the blood (lymphopenia), chills, infection and weakness (asthenia). Health care providers are advised to monitor patients for tumor lysis syndrome (a complication of treatment where tumor cells are killed off at the same time and released into the bloodstream), cardiac adverse reactions, damage to kidneys (renal toxicity), and bowel obstruction and perforation.
This leaves a wide open marketing window for Celltrion and Teva, as Sandoz announced in late October that it was halting its effort to bring its own rituximab biosimilar to the market. There is no word as of this writing regarding the launch and pricing of Truxima in the US. This also represents the second FDA approval for Celltrion; its infliximab biosimilar, Inflectra, was approved in 2016.
In Other Biosimilar News… As BR&R reported in our October discussion with Molly Burich, MS, Director, Public Policy: Biosimilars and Pipeline, Boehringer Ingelheim had decided to forego marketing its adalimumab biosimilar Cyltezo® in the EU. This is likely owing to the highly competitive environment and the huge pricing discounts being signed by European countries. However, Boehringer has now announced its intention to discontinue all efforts to market and develop any biosimilars outside of the US market. This may come as little surprise, as the Boehringer biosimilar pipeline was not aggressively stocked. Instead, it has been focused on seeking interchangeability status for Cyltezo and to launch this product as soon as possible.
We previously reported that Momenta Pharmaceuticals reevaluated its biopharmaceutical strategy going forward, deciding to move forward only with its investigational adalimumab and aflibercept biosimilars. Yesterday, Momenta announced that it has joined the long queue of pharmaceutical manufacturers signing a biosimilar licensing deal with Abbvie, which will allow commercialization of M923, its biosimilar to Humira, should it obtain regulatory approval. Momenta’s licensing deal is the fifth one signed by prospective biosimilar marketers in the US.
This agreement was pretty much a no-brainer for Momenta. The company did not have the stomach for attempting either an extended patent fight or an at-risk launch. However, the biosimilar licensing agreement only allows Momenta to market its adalimumab biosimilar in the US after December 2023, which will make it the fifth Humira biosimilar that will launch under the licensing agreements (Table). The main patents for Humira have expired in Europe, and these agreements have generally allowed the European launches to occur as of October 16 of this year.
Of the manufacturers signing biosimilar licensing deals with Abbvie , only Amgen and Sandoz have earned FDA approval for Amjevita® and Hyrimoz®, respectively. And Boehringer Ingelheim is still duking out patent litigation with Abbvie in the courts over its approved biosimilar agent Cytelzo®, for which it hopes to receive an interchangeability designation. The second through fifth agents entering the fight will be likely pounding away at subsequently smaller slices of revenue.
Perhaps the most frustrating part is that Abbvie is running a lucrative game; it will collect royalties from all of these manufacturers in 2023 and beyond, which will help offset declining marketshare from its biggest revenue contributor.
In Abbvie’s Web: Who Has Signed Licensing Agreements for Biosimilar Adalimumab?
Company/Partner
Drug Name
Launch Date
Amgen
Amjevita*
January 2023
Samsung Bioepis/Merck
SB5
June 2023
Mylan/Fujifilm Kyowa Kirin Biologics
Hulio
August 2023
Sandoz
Hyrimoz*
September 2023
Momenta
M923
December 2023
*Received FDA Approval.
Note: This post was revised and corrected, November 8, 2018.
In part two and the conclusion of this interview, Molly Burich, MS, Director, Public Policy: Biosimilars and Pipeline, speaks to Boehringer Ingelheim’s progress in Cytelzo interchangeability studies, its plans for the product in Europe in the face of several adalimumab biosimilars launches in the EU, and also the complexity inherent in CMS’s plans to move biologic agents from part B to part D coverage.
Molly Burich, MS
BR&R: Boehringer Ingelheim indicated that it started the study on Cytelzo interchangeability last year. What’s the progress on this effort?
Burich: The trial is continuing to progress. It’s a high bar and a big commitment. We will certainly publicize relevant information in due course.
We feel that for Cyltezo, in particular, interchangeability is an important component. It may drive switching. The study will also show a complement of clinical data around that topic. We hope to have information to share in the future. [Editor’s Note: The VOLTAIRE-X study, which will evaluate the effect of switching between Cyltezo and Humira in patients with plaque psoriasis, has an estimated primary study completion date of March 2020 and full study completion of July 2020, according to ClinicalTrials.gov]
BR&R: Speaking about Cyltezo, I have a question about the marketing floodgates being opened in the EU for adalimumab biosimilars. At least 4 are being launched in the EU after the October 16th patent expiration. Does Boehringer Ingelheim plan to join the fray?
Burich: Boehringer Ingelheim had planned to bring Cyltezo to patients in the EU. Due to the patent litigation with AbbVie in the US, we will not commercialize Cyltezo in the EU. Boehringer Ingelheim will continue all activities for our biosimilar in the United States. We are committed to making Cyltezo® available to U.S. patients as soon as possible and certainly before 2023.
PART B TO PART D TRANSITION BY CMS
BR&R: Medicare has indicated that it will move many Medicare part B drugs into part D. To what extent will this affect biosimilar access and utilization?
Burich: It is a very hot topic these days. We have some pretty significant concerns on conceptually around what it means for moving from part B to part D. The key reason revolves around the access question, including patient cost sharing.
A move from part B to plan D could mean that patient cost sharing may jump significantly. We know that part B beneficiaries have wraparound or Medigap coverage to protect them from cost sharing issues. In part D, there is not such protection. Aside from the biosimilar question, the move from part B to part D really has to be explored and discussed a lot more to understand how we can ensure that patient access is not reduced through high cost sharing. That needs to be ironed out as it applies to any part B drug before we can speculate whether this is an opportunity for a biosimilar. Time will tell what that really looks like.
Last month, CMS released the Medicare Advantage guidance allowing for step therapy for part B drugs. That could be a potential opportunity for biosimilars, if we know how some of the access concerns will be addressed. We just don’t have the full picture at this point.
BR&R: Is it possible that this move to part D might spur some payers to create biosimilar tiers? These would require lower cost sharing for patients compared with reference biologics, assuming contracts with the reference manufacturer permits it.
Burich: In my opinion, we’ll need access to more biosimilars before we see a lot of that activity. It’s hard to foresee what big benefit design changes will be coming, but it’s certainly possible. We’ll need a mature market in the US before that will happen.
BR&R: The devil is in the details with this switching issue but there’s also an access issue. Plans can make midyear formulary changes, this would then apply to biosimilars and reference drugs covered under part D.
Burich: This is an important issue. The latest guidance that we saw from CMS, which is now a couple of years old, allowed positive formulary changes. Adding the biosimilar to a formulary is always allowed mid-year. The question involves removing an originator product or changing its tier.
CMS has said that those situations would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. These rules preventing negative formulary changes midyear are there to protect patient access. It will take CMS some time to iron out what the process looks like for this type of potential formulary change midyear. For now, we’ll have to rely on CMS’s case-by-case review
BR&R: In general, payers do not consistently fund and manage self-injectable specialty drugs in the same way. In some cases, they cover these agents under the pharmacy benefits, medical benefit, or even both. Further, they can be managed under either benefit as well. However, it seems we are moving toward pharmacy management of these agents. How does this affect biosimilar access, if at all?
Burich: There will be more benefit design changes once we have a more robust biosimilar market. More specifically, when we have pharmacy benefit biosimilars.
We’ve mentioned CMS’s intention to move more of these products from part B to part D. It is possible that commercial plans will have different benefit designs and treat injectables differently than Medicare does. We want to make sure that biosimilar or not, the access piece is really at the center of those changes; it will not be beneficial to the biosimilar market if this move causes significant patient access issues (e.g., actual access to this drug or big swings in cost sharing). All of those things will be equally problematic for a biosimilar as they are for an originator, so we want to make sure we have our eye on the access component.
BR&R: Health and Human Services Secretary Azar and FDA Commissioner Gottlieb have loudly stated their desire to improve biosimilar patient and market access. The Biosimilar Action Plan was released earlier in the summer to that end. What is the one aspect of the Biosimilar Action Plan that appeals most to manufacturers like Boehringer Ingelheim?
Burich: The aspect of education, tackling both proactive education and countering misinformation is very critical from our perspective. We’d like to see more materials moving forward that focus on switching and on interchangeability. We haven’t really scratched the surface on those topics from an education standpoint.
The reality is that the FDA has an important voice and bringing validity to educational materials is so critical for patients, physicians, and health plans as well. We hope that the FDA will stand by its public commitment to release more reading materials, more videos, more web info, etc. It is especially important at this juncture; we are seeing misinformation and a lack of clarity on certain things.
IS THE BIOSIMILAR ACTION PLAN ACTIONABLE?
BR&R: One of the biggest barriers to biosimilar access is the patent thickets. The rebate trap problem is another story. What power does HHS have to clear out the patent thickets? Or is this an area that can only be addressed by Congress?
Burich: This is the most difficult part of the Action Plan, because it is unclear who can truly implement change and what change might be realistic. We have to protect true innovation that’s important to all stakeholders.
At the same time, there’s no question that patent litigation is the leading barrier to biosimilar accesss. Some makers of branded pharmaceuticals have constructed patent thickets so that they could sustain prolonged, expensive litigation against competitors, while stifling competition. Humira is the prime example: More than 15 years after the molecule was approved , no biosimilar is being marketed – in the U.S. What the answer is and which government agency can effect change has yet to be determined.
BR&R: That change won’t come quickly, in any case. Whether enacted by Congress or the Office of the Inspector General, which may have to reinterpret the safe harbor statutes, this may only first apply to the second-generation of biosimilar agents, beyond 2021 perhaps. It seems likely that this will be a very deliberate process.
Burich: I do believe Commissioner Gottlieb is thinking about both how to get more products launched in the short term and also the long-term vision of a sustainable biosimilar market. That is such an important part of the problem.
We were very happy that the FDA had their public hearing. The FDA panel asked a lot of thoughtful and probing questions to the individual speakers. We are fully supportive of the Action Plan and its individual components. If we saw all of those things come together and start to see action, including finalizing the interchangeability guidance and providing more education, the biosimilar market would be in a far better place.
BR&R: We say that biosimilar manufacturers can make their products attractive to payers, but payers need to play a positive role here. Commissioner Gottlieb has said that payers have to help in this process by taking the long-term view, by not automatically sticking with the reference product because of the rebate revenue. They have to be open to using the biosimilars and nurturing the health of the industry. Is there anything else the biosimilar manufacturer can do to convince payers to make this market viable?
Burich: Certainly, biosimilar manufacturers have to approach these payer negotiations and conversations with competitive and innovative contracting approaches. That does not just include pricing but also how do you drive volume and true savings to both payers and patients. That kind of innovative approach is necessary, because we know it’s a challenging market.
Biosimilar manufacturers have to look at the whole picture as well. That means providing targeted patient/physician services to really help ensure that the switching experience is seamless for the patient and the physician so that biosimilar utilization is not viewed as something very disruptive.
In the first portion of a two-part interview with Molly Burich, MS, Director, Public Policy: Biosimilars and Pipeline, Boehringer Ingelheim, we cover the challenges of driving biosimilar uptake, as well as the unique situation that has focused this manufacturer’s attention on biosimilars and interchangeability.
BR&R: The viability of the US biosimilar industry is being challenged if companies cannot rely on revenue from switching, especially for the autoimmune category.
Molly Burich, MS
Molly Burich: Yes, biosimilar uptake is certainly going to be dependent on switching. But switching comes in a few different types. One case involves patients who are going to be switched to a therapy with a different mechanism of action. Perhaps their existing therapy no longer works (or didn’t work in the first place).
Another case is medication substitution by the physician. The doctor drives that decision to switch the patient either to a biosimilar or to an interchangeable.
Lastly is automatic substitution, which will come as a result of interchangeability and enabled by state laws. However, that is only in play once a product gains the interchangeability designation.
All of those are important components, but certainly switching overall is an important part of the market viability.
BR&R: When we’re talking about automatic switching, multiple stakeholders are involved, including the prescribers, pharmacies, payers, patients. And none of it matters if we don’t have an interchangeable product or even final guidelines from the FDA on interchangeability. In retrospect, should we have made automatic switching for biosimilars based on something other than interchangeability?
Burich: There are a lot of stakeholders involved and this is. why multiple ways of switching will likely occur. In terms of switching, interchangeability allows pharmacists to switch one reference product prescription for an interchangeable one without intervention of the physician at the front end—pending state laws of course. The physician must be notified of the change.
In our opinion though, automatic switching is certainly not the only way to drive uptake of biosimilars. We believe physician-driven switching and payer-drive substitution via formulary decision-making are very important to drive the uptake of biosimilars.
BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM’S SINGULAR PRODUCT FOCUS
BR&R: Biosimilar utilization, and the overall market, has been growing slowly since the first biosimilar approval. Prospective biosimilar manufacturers have tended to jump into the market with both feet, filling their pipelines with multiple biosimilar agents. Boehringer Ingelheim may be the only major manufacturer with a single biosimilar listed on its pipeline web page. Is the company in a wait-and-see mode, to see if the industry will survive? Or is Boehringer making further investments in biosimilar development behind the scenes?
Burich: We are constantly in an evaluation process of our portfolio. Obviously, we are focused on our approved biosimilar Cyltezo® (adalimumab-adbm) and also on interchangeability, here in the U.S. That is our focus area. We believe that the introduction of biosimilars will improve the lives of patients, as well as contribute to the quality and economic sustainability of healthcare systems.
INTERCHANGEABILITY: MISUNDERSTOOD BUT NO SILVER BULLET
BR&R: The issues around interchangeability are particularly frustrating. At the time the BPCIA was written, was the concept of interchangeability (which does not exist in EMA regulations) an attempt to give prescribers and consumers a warm and fuzzy feeling of an AB-rated generic?
Burich: It’s an important question. As you said, when the BPCIA was written, interchangeability was viewed as a sort of silver bullet. The reality is that interchangeability is an important concept, but perhaps it makes more sense for only certain products. As we gain experience in the biosimilar market, we’re starting to see this.
We believe in the concept of interchangeability and in what the FDA has put forth about interchangeability. We do think there are questions about how an interchangeable product may be perceived compared with one that is not interchangeable. In our comments to the FDA, we encouraged the FDA to come out with educational materials that are geared toward talking about interchangeability, and talking about switching. These are all important questions and need to be addressed for the broad stakeholder community. The FDA is obviously best positioned to bring that type of education in the next round of materials they develop.
BR&R: We’ve heard a great deal about people mischaracterizing interchangeable products as being superior to biosimilars (for the same reference product). Why is this differentiation so important?
Burich: This issue speaks to education. All people engaging in the biosimilar space must realize that the designation of interchangeability does not mean it’s a higher-quality, safer, or more-efficacious product. It means that the manufacturer has conducted additional studies required by the FDA to enable that automatic substitution at the pharmacy level.
The FDA has issued clarifying pieces of information and education on their website about this, but there is room for more. The reality is that when a drug is approved as a biosimilar, it has attained the foundational designation proving that the drug is highly similar to the reference biologic, without any clinically meaningful differences. On the other hand, gaining the interchangeability designation is about conducting trials of multiple switches within the patient and expecting the same results in any given to patient. Those are two different distinctions. It proves something different, allowing for automatic substitution to occur.
In part two and the conclusion of this interview, which will be published in a separate post, Molly Burich speaks to Boehringer Ingelheim’s progress in Cytelzo’s interchangeability studies, its plans for the product in Europe in the face of several adalimumab biosimilars launches in the EU, and also the complexity inherent in CMS’s plans to move biologic agents from part B to part D coverage.
According to the FDA’s announcement, the most common side effects of Truxima are infusion reactions, fever, abnormally low level of lymphocytes in the blood (lymphopenia), chills, infection and weakness (asthenia). Health care providers are advised to monitor patients for tumor lysis syndrome (a complication of treatment where tumor cells are killed off at the same time and released into the bloodstream), cardiac adverse reactions, damage to kidneys (renal toxicity), and bowel obstruction and perforation.