Tag: Roche

The Potential Effect of Amgen’s Launch on Biosimilar Licensing Deals

Imagine this interesting and perhaps very real-life scenario. It could have several implications for the present biosimilar marketing picture.

Biosimilar licensing deals

A reference manufacturer, we’ll call them Arby, signs multiple licensing deals with biosimilar manufacturers, to launch their products sequentially in 2025. The licensing deals all conclude outstanding patent litigation between the parties. But one biosimilar manufacturer doesn’t sign. We’ll call them Brooklyn Industries (BI for short).

Despite Arby’s contention that its patents on the reference product Yultira are valid until the year 2045, BI decides to launch at risk in July 2020. According to the phased launch schedule, another manufacturer, Thousand Oaks, was supposed to have the first biosimilar available on the market, with a three-month jump on the other seven competitors. Does that really give BI a five-year start over all of its competitors? And what if BI had an interchangeable biosimilar designation? Would that enable them to lock up the marketshare?

Biosimilar Licensing Deals: The Acceleration Effect

This scenario is actually playing out today with Amgen’s launch announcement of its trastuzumab and bevacizumab biosimilars (Kanjinti® and Mvasi®, respectively). Other manufacturers, including Pfizer, Samsung Bioepis, Mylan/Biocon, Teva/Celltrion have licensing agreements in place with Genentech (a subsidiary of Roche) for launch of their Herceptin® biosimilars. Only Amgen’s Mvasi and Pfizer’s Zirabev® are approved (so far) to compete for the bevacizumab business. The details of the licensing deals signed by Roche have not been released publicly, so we do not know when the first “authorized” biosimilars were supposed to launch. Conjecture abounded that it would be in 2019, nevertheless.

How does Amgen’s Kanjinti launch affect the licensing agreements that were signed with Roche? Does it mean that Amgen gets a substantial head start on the competition? Do the licensing contracts consider this possibility?

According to Kevin M. Nelson, JD, at the Chicago-based law firm Schiff Hardin, this scenario is considered in a typical pharmaceutical licensing arrangement. “Typically, settlement agreements in the pharma space include what are called acceleration clauses. Such clauses will allow an agreed-upon launch date to be accelerated to an earlier date in the event the patent or patents are invalidated or found not infringed in another litigation, or if a competing product or authorized competing product comes on the market before that agreed-upon date.”

Biosimilar licensing deals
Kevin M. Nelson, JD

He added that these acceleration provisions “can come in a variety of flavors from a change in royalty rate or structure, a requirement to leave the market if the ‘unauthorized entrant’ leaves the market, or perhaps agreed damages.” 

Accelerating Clauses Are One Thing. Accelerating Launch Is Another Matter

The fact that Amgen has announced its immediate launch may present more pragmatic problems for the other manufacturers, Mr. Nelson pointed out. Let’s say that you were a member of the Mylan/Biocon team. Your product was approved more than 18 months ago (the first one approved). Let’s also say that your licensing agreement with Genentech allowed you to launch after November 1 (a purely speculative, arbitrary date). Finally, assume that your licensing agreement was generous: it allowed you to launch as soon as possible after another competitor jumped the starter’s gun. Is it feasible to launch immediately, perhaps four months early?

“The biosimilar companies cannot just fire up the machines and have product ready tomorrow,” stated Mr. Nelson. There are all of the logistical issues surrounding a launch that must be considered: “Manufacturing, packaging, sales, and distribution all take time,” he said. “And you don’t want inventory to go bad—especially not this type as it is expensive. They may have some reserve lots or made small batches just in case, so we could see a trickle into the market.”

Remember, also, that payer and health system contracts are not arrived at overnight. Even if the Mylan/Biocon team did have lots available for shipment, they might not have places in the US to ship, other than to a group purchasing organization or distributor’s warehouse.

Typically, payers will not cover pharmaceutical agents outside of medical exceptions before the Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committee review, and this can happen anytime between 60 days and 9 months of the launch. And this is not a product that will revolutionize therapy or immediately fill an unmet clinical need. Only large discounts can move the needle here, and establish a contract quickly. Therefore, the anticipated short window of opportunity that Amgen may have in launching Kanjinti may get a little shorter but perhaps by not much.

When I mentioned the Arby, er Abbvie, scenario, Mr. Nelson agreed that it would be an entirely different ballgame. Had Boehringer Ingelheim decided to enter the market (as an interchangeable or not), their launch “would have caused absolute chaos.” Imagine trying to pull forward launch date plans of seven manufacturers by three years!

The Biosimilar Mabs Have It: FDA Approves Biosimilars for Adalimumab and Rituxumab

In a busy beginning of the week, the US Food and Drug Administration approved new biosimilars for Humira®and Rituxan®. Samsung Bioepis gained approval for Hadlima™ (adalimumab-bwwd), and Pfizer scored with Ruxience™ (rituximab-pvvr).

HADLIMA

The approval for Hadlima covers the following indications:

  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Juvenile idiopathic arthritis
  • Psoriatic arthritis
  • Ankylosing spondylitis
  • Crohn’s disease in adults
  • Ulcerative colitis
  • Plaque psoriasis

Formerly known as SB5, Samsung Bioepis secured Hadlima’s approval on the basis of phase 1 and phase 3 studies in rheumatoid arthritis. The phase 3 investigation included over 500 patients, finding ACR20 responses to be equivalent to that of Humira (at 72%). Immunogenicity profiles for the two agents were also similar through 52 weeks of a switching study.

According to its licensing agreement with Abbvie, manufacturer of Humira, Samsung will not be able to market this agent until end of June 2023. This agent joins Samsung’s two other approved anti-TNF biosimilars, Renflexis (infliximab) and Eticovo (etanercept). Only Renflexis is currently marketed in the US.

RUXIENCE

Pfizer’s newest biosimilar entry, Ruxience, has been approved for a subset of indications of reference product Rituxan, including:

  • Treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory, low-grade or  follicular B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma who are CD20-positive and have failed prior treatments
  • Patients who have nonprogressing, low-grade, CD20-positive B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and who are stable after receiving a prior chemotherapy regimen containing cyclophosphamide, vincristine and prednisone
  • Patients with CD20-positive follicular lymphoma who are therapy naïve in combination with chemotherapy or who had responded to previous rituximab therapy
  • Patients with CD20-positive chronic lymphocytic leukemia in combination with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide
  • Granulomatosis with polyangiitis in adult patients in combination with glucocorticoids

The biosimilar does not include Rituxan’s labeled indication for rheumatoid arthritis, similar to the other approved rituximab biosimilar.

The application for Ruxience included the results of the phase 3 clinical trial (REFLECTIONS), which included 394 patients with follicular lymphoma. Compared with the EU-licensed version of rituximab (MabThera®), Ruxience was found to provide equivalent clinical and safety outcomes.

Originally designated PF-05280586, Pfizer has not disclosed when Ruxience will be available. Pfizer signed a settlement with Roche (Genentech) over litigation for a key Rituxan patent, but terms of this agreement were not disclosed. The other FDA-approved biosimilar competitor in this space, Celltrion’s Truxima®, is similarly awaiting launch.

Amgen/Allergan Partners Announce Launches of Herceptin and Avastin Biosimilars

The partnership of Amgen and Allergan made a huge splash in the biosimilar market by announcing the simultaneous US launches of the first two biosimilars of anticancer monoclonal antibodies. The agents Kanjinta® (trastuzumab-anns) and Mvasi® (bevacizumab-awwb) were officially made available July 18.

The move occurred almost simultaneously with a court denial of Genentech’s request for a restraining order against Amgen. For Amgen, this marks the first two biosimilars to reach commercialization.

The launch discounts associated with these two agents is only 15% off of average wholesale price (AWP), but the manufacturers point out that is still significantly below the average selling price (ASP) of the two reference drugs—13% lower than that for Herceptin® and 12% lower than that for Avastin®. This pricing does not include potential rebates or discounts that could further reduce the net costs of these biosimilars.

The launch timing raises the question of when the FDA-approved biosimilar competition will be launched. Other biosimilars in the trastuzumab space have signed licensing agreements with Genentech, the maker of Herceptin. Their launch dates have not been disclosed. Several biosimilar makers have also signed licensing agreements with Genentech on their versions of Avastin, and their launch dates may be upcoming as well.

Assuming the licensing agreements compel the other manufacturers to pay some percentage of sales or profits to Genentech, this could give Amgen/Allergan an automatic edge in profitability. It is unknown whether the launch timing of Mvasi and Kanjinti, have any implications for the existing licensing agreements. For example, it may be possible that an early launch by an unlicensed competitor could negate specific clauses of these contracts.

The bevacizumab biosimilar class progress had stagnated through court proceedings and licensing agreements. In a post from January 2019, we had noted that Amgen had notified the court that it was prepared to launch as early as April 2018.

On the trastuzumab side, Amgen/Allergan’s product was the most recently approved biosimilar (in June 2019).

In their joint press release, they quoted Paula Schneider, CEO of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. “The introduction of biosimilars is an important step in increasing options for treating HER2-positive breast cancers, which account for about 25% of all breast cancers,” she said. “As patient advocates, we are working to ensure that patients are educated about biosimilars and understand that these FDA-approved treatments are just as effective as the original biologic drugs.”

Samsung Bioepis Signals a Settlement With Genentech on Herceptin Biosimilar

And then there was one. Samsung Bioepis and Genentech filed a motion in District Court to drop all pending patent litigation regarding Ontruzant®, an approved Herceptin® biosimilar. A Joint Stipulation of Dismissal is usually the confirmation that a licensing agreement has been reached.

This leaves one remaining approved trastuzumab biosimilar maker that has not settled with Genentech (a subsidiary of Roche). Amgen’s product Kanjinti®, which was the last trastuzumab biosimilar approved (in June), is the last of 5 approved agents that is not yet subject to a Genentech agreement. The other manufacturers, Mylan/Biocon, Teva/Celltrion, Pfizer, and now Samsung Bioepis, will likely pay a royalty to Genentech whenever their products are launched.

Launch dates have not been announced (nor have the terms of these agreements) for any Herceptin biosimilar. However, the principal patent for Herceptin® has expired, so biosimilar competition should be available before the end of the year.

In other biosimilar news…Coherus Biosciences announced that it has manufactured its 400,000th dose of its pegfilgrastim biosimilar Udenyca®. Additionally, its unaudited second quarter earnings seem to indicate positive movement, as much as $84 million (more than doubling first-quarter earnings of $37 million).

Introducing the 21st FDA Approval: Pfizer’s Zirabev, a Biosimilar of Avastin

On June 28, 2019, Pfizer announced that it had received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of Zirabev™ (bevacizumab-bvzr), a biosimilar version of Roche’s Avastin®.

Pfizer approval of Zirabev

Based on the evidence provided by Pfizer, including its phase 3 trial comparing it to the EU-licensed version of Avastin, the FDA approved Zirabev for five cancer indications, including:

  • Advanced, metastatic, or recurrent nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer
  • Metastatic colorectal cancer
  • Recurrent glioblastoma
  • Metastatic renal cell carcinoma
  • Metastatic cervical cancer

This approval does not include ovarian cancer, which is an additional indication for Avastin. Belonging to a class of biologics called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors, these agents work by preventing new development of a tumor’s blood vessels, helping to choke off growth.

Zirabev’s approval marks the 21st FDA approved biosimilar agent and the second approval for a bevacizumab biosimilar. Mvasi®, to be manufactured by the partnership of Amgen and Allergan, obtained approval in September 2017. However, this product is not yet marketed.

At a recent annual meeting of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, a specialty drug pipeline expert expressed hope that Mvasi would be launched in July of this year. Its manufacturer has been embroiled in patent litigation with Roche, but the key patents are expected to expire in the immediate future.

Pfizer has not announced a launch date for Zirabev. Yet, it could be the second cancer-treating biosimilar category to enter competition (with Herceptin biosimilars) very shortly.

Don’t Expect All-Out Biosimilar Competition for Herceptin—Just Yet

Five trastuzumab biosimilars have been approved for marketing in the US, and the composition-of-matter patent for the reference product, Herceptin®, expires June 30, 2019. That doesn’t mean we’ll see a jail break of competition, like that seen in the EU last October with adalimumab’s patent expiration. Yet there has been heavy interest in capturing a slice of Herceptin’s $2.9 billion US sales (in 2018).

Three manufacturers have signed licensing agreements with Genentech (subsidiary of Roche). In March 2017, Mylan signed the first agreement for its product Ogivri®. Its marketing partner is Biocon. In December 2018, Pfizer followed suit for its recently approved agent Trazimera®. None of the parties have indicated when a biosimilar agent will be launched. At the end of December, Celltrion and Teva came to a similar agreement on its Herzuma® biosimilar.

Herceptin patent litigation

According to Goodwin’s Big Molecule Watch, Roche’s infringement claims against Samsung Bioepis (Ontrusant®) and Amgen/Allergan (Kanjinti®) are still being litigated. For Genentech v. Samsung, the bench trial is slated to begin December 9, 2019. In addition, Samsung Bioepis is appealing the Patent Trial and Appeals Board ruling regarding the validity of Herceptin’s method of use patents. Separately, Genentech is challenging the PTAB’s decision that two other Herceptin patents were invalid. There’s a whole lot here that needs to be resolved (or settled).

In the case of Amgen and Allergan, Genentech originally brought suit claiming 38 patents were infringed (in June 2018). In July 2018, Genentech reduced this figure to less than half (17). A month later, Amgen responded to the suit. Little information is available on timing of next steps.

Based on this information, it is difficult to know just when the first trastuzumab biosimilars will be launched. If Genentech followed Abbvie’s example in its 2023 sequencing of adalimumab biosimilars, one might expect Mylan’s product to be available first, perhaps as early as this summer, with Pfizer’s and Celltrion to follow perhaps six months later.

Yet, unlike the Abbvie agreements, none of the Genentech licensing settlements were made public (other than the actual dates of the agreement). Keep in mind, Herceptin was first approved by the FDA in October 1998. In 2018, the drug’s sales in the US and EU combined was over $4.7 billion. Is 21 years of market exclusivity to anyone’s benefit, other than the manufacturer? Since 2006, US drug sales of Herceptin have been greater than $1 billion annually. If the biosimilar launches do not occur shortly, this may be a good test case of the Federal Trade Commission’s commitment to clearing patents in the name of competition.

Pfizer Receives Approval for Trazimera, the Fourth Trastuzumab Biosimilar

A fourth trastuzumab biosimilar has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Pfizer’s biosimilar version of trastuzumab-qyyp (Trazimera) gained approval on March 11.

The principal phase 3 study tested Trazimera against the EU-licensed version of Herceptin®. The REFLECTIONS B327-02 study found no relevant differences in the clinical and safety outcomes for patients with HER2–positive metastatic breast cancer, who also received paclitaxel. A second study tested Trazimera versus EU-licensed Herceptin in combination with docetaxel and carboplatin as neoadjuvant therapy, again demonstrating similar outcomes. The FDA’s approval covers both indications approved for Herceptin (treatment of HER2-overexpressing breast cancer and metastatic gastric/ gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma).

Pfizer first filed for approval of its trastuzumab biosimilar in the third quarter of 2017, and received a rejection from FDA in April 2018. Resubmission in June 2018, with additional information requested by the FDA, resulted in the current approval. The product was approved by the European Medicines Agency last year.

As with the other approved biosimilar versions of trastuzumab (Herzuma, Ogivri, and Ontruzant) in the United States, Trazimera is not yet available for prescription. Pfizer signed a licensing agreement with Herceptin’s maker Roche in December 2018, but a launch date is not yet available.

In other biosimilar news…Biocon’s biosimilar manufacturing plant has received a second citation from the FDA. The new Form 483 specified two issues, one involving sanitizing a type of barrier system and problems in tracking rejected vials.

Samsung Bioepis Scores FDA Approval of Ontruzant, the Third Biosimilar Trastuzumab

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on January 18, 2019 the approval of a new biosimilar version of trastuzumab. Produced by Samsung Bioepis, this agent was dubbed Ontruzant (trastuzumab-dttb).

This is the third trastuzumab biosimilar approved by the FDA, following those by Mylan and Biocon in December 2017 (Ogivri®) and Teva and Celltrion last month (Herzuma®). As with biosimilars other than Herzuma and the reference biologic Herceptin®, this agent is approved for use in the treatment of HER2-overexpressing breast cancer and the treatment of HER2-overexpressing metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. Herzuma is not approved for the latter indication.

As with Renflexis®, Samsung Bioepis’ first FDA-approved biosimilar, Merck will market the product in the US when launched. No launch date has yet been revealed.

Mylan and Biocon had signed a licensing agreement with Roche, the manufacturer of Herceptin, which ended their patent fight, but which delayed launch. Teva and Celltrion have not yet disclosed whether a similar deal has been reached with Roche. Pfizer has an investigational trastuzumab biosimilar, and they too have signed a licensing agreement with Roche.

Will the Government Shutdown Slow Biosimilar Approvals?

The partial federal government shutdown is having specific effects in various important areas of government, but it may not be particularly troubling for FDA user-fee funded activities.

Scott Gottlieb, MD, Commissioner of the FDA, has been especially busy on Twitter, trying to inform the public how the government shut down is affecting FDA operations. He made it clear that the agency is prioritizing its efforts on ensuring consumer safety.

During an extended tweet storm (the past 7 days), he has not directly addressed the effect of the shutdown on current drug approvals. However, since the pharmaceutical companies have paid into the drug approval activities of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Review, there may be sufficient funds and resources for ongoing approval activities. In a tweet last week, Dr. Gottlieb mentioned that FDA was bringing onto staff several new user-fee funded staffers. Yet, in a January 7 tweet, he promised additional information on how the shutdown would affect biosimilars; this has not yet been addressed.

In terms of biosimilars, two trastuzumab drug makers are expecting FDA decisions this quarter (Pfizer and Samsung Bioepis). However, Pfizer’s biosimilar launch is subject to a licensing agreement with Genentech (Roche), the maker of the reference product Herceptin®. Therefore, if there was a short delay in FDA approval, it will not likely have a material effect on availability for prescription. We anticipate that Pfizer will also be hearing from the FDA on its rituximab biosimilar in the second quarter.

This could raise a secondary problem with the shutdown: Will the current furlough cause a chain reaction of delays in the evaluation of existing biologic licensing applications? How long might it take the full FDA staff to catch up, if that is the case?

In a January 13 tweet, Dr. Gottlieb said, “The lapse in funding represents one of the most significant operational challenges in FDA’s recent history. But as an agency, we’re committed to fulfilling our consumer protection mandate, to the best of our abilities, under our current configuration.”

In other biosimilar news… A January 10 story in The Pink Sheet reported that Leah Christl, PhD, Associate Director of Therapeutic Biologics at FDA intends to depart the agency in the near future (a specific date was not given).

FDA Approves Celltrion and Teva’s Herceptin® Biosimilar

On December 14, the US Food and Drug Administration gave its approval for a new trastuzumab biosimilar (Herzuma™). Manufactured by Celltrion and marketed in the US by Teva, this agent has been designated trastuzumab-pkrb.

The decision marks the second trastuzumab biosimilar approval, and the 16th biosimilar agentthat has made it through the 351(k) regulatory pathway.

Herzuma was approved for a single indication: the treatment of HER2-overexpressing breast cancer. Unlike the other trastuzumab biosimilar, Ogivri®, and Herceptin, Herzuma does not carry the extrapolated indication for the treatment of HER2-overexpressing metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

Originally submitted for approval by Celltrion in July 2017, the FDA issued a complete response letter because of plant manufacturing issues. A year later, after addressing these problems, Celltrion refiled its 351(k) application (June 2018).

Celltrion has launched Herzuma in Europe and elsewhere with marketing partners other than Teva. Neither Celltrion or Teva have announced at this time when the US launch may occur or how it will be priced. Partners Mylan and Biocon, makers of Ogivri, and Pfizer, the manufacturer of a potential competitor, have signed licensing agreements with Roche, makers of the reference product to delay launch.