Tag: Truxima

Partners Teva/Celltrion Seek the Jump on Pfizer, Launch Their Rituximab Biosimilar Next Week

When Pfizer announced its intention just more than a week ago to begin marketing its rituximab biosimilar Ruxience® in January 2020, industry watchers wondered when we might hear a response from its sole approved competitor. The wait was over quickly: Teva and Celltrion will begin shipping their own rituximab biosimilar Truxima® on November 11.

Truxima was approved in October 2018 for the cancer indications of Genentech’s reference product Rituxan®. In a joint press release issued by both companies, Brendan O’Grady, Teva’s Executive Vice President and Head of North America Commercial Operations, stated, “We are excited about the first FDA-approved biosimilar to rituximab in the US. Teva’s commitment to biosimilars is focused on the potential to create lower healthcare costs and increased price competition. This focus is consistent with Teva’s mission of making accessible medications to help improve the lives of patients.”

The press release also mentioned a key detail of the partners’ patent settlement with Genentech. Specifically, Celltrion and Teva will be able to market the autoimmune indications (rheumatoid arthritis, granulomatosis, with polyangiitis, and microscopic polyangiitis) in the second quarter of 2020, assuming they receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration for the broader indications. Ruxience is not currently indicated for these same autoimmune disorders.

The partners announced that the wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) for Truxima will be just 10% below that for Rituxan, which will be subject to further discounts and rebates negotiated with individual payers. That works out to a WAC of $845.55 for 100 mg vial (or $4227.75 for 500 mg vial). Teva will be responsible for marketing Truxima in the US.

Pfizer has not yet announced their intended WAC for Ruxience’s launch in January.

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.

Rituximab Biosimilar Approved by FDA for Cancer Treatment

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.

rituximab biosimilarAccording 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.

FDA Hands Sandoz a Rejection on Its Rituximab Biosimilar

Sandoz announced today that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided not to approve its biosimilar version of the oncology biosimilar rituximab. The content of the complete response letter was not revealed by Sandoz.

This marks the second rituximab biosimilar rejected by the FDA. Celltrion and Teva’s Truxima™ was also rejected in early April. Both Sandoz’s biosimilar (Rixathon™) and Truxima™ are marketed in Europe and in other parts of the globe. In Europe, Rixathon was approved in June 2017, and Truxima received marketing authorization in February of that year.

Although the European approval for Rixathon was for all of Rituxan/MabThera’s oncology and autoimmune indications, Sandoz was seeking oncology indications only in the US with its rituximab biosimilar.

Sandoz registered early success with filgrastim (Zarxio®) and etanercept (Erelzi®), but was handed a set back from FDA on its biosimilar pegfilgrastim. We’ll report any updates we receive on Sandoz’s progress in resolving the issues in question with rituximab.

Next up is the Allergan/Amgen biosimilar of trastuzumab, which has an FDA PDUFA date of May 28.

Rituximab and Filgrastim Biosimilars Being Reviewed by FDA

Today, Sandoz announced the acceptance by the Food and Drug Administration of its application for a biosimilar rituximab. This biosimilar was approved by the European Medicines Agency in June 2017.

The manufacturer included a phase 3 trial of the agent to treat follicular lymphoma, one of two Hodgkin’s lymphomas for which the originator product is approved to treat. Its pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics studies were conducted in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, another major indication.

fdaThis marks the second rituximab biosimilar to be submitted to the FDA; Celltrion’s application for its Truxima™ brand was submitted in June. Sandoz’s Zarxio® has been marketed since 2015, and Erelzi® (etanercept-szzs) was approved in August 2016 but is not yet marketed.

In addition, Adello Biologic announced that their 351(k) application for a new biosimilar filgrastim was sent to FDA on September 11. No FDA decision date was announced, but assuming a smooth ride through the process, a decision may be expected around the third quarter of 2018.

This is Adello’s first biosimilar brought to FDA application. According to its website, Adello is currently in clinical trials with a pegfilgrastim biosimilar, with preclinical development on a version of adalimumab.

Celltrion’s Rituximab Recommended for Approval in Europe

Just weeks after Celltrion presented data at the American College of Rheumatology meeting demonstrating that its product CT-P10 is as safe and effective as Rituxan® for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) received the recommendation to approve the product for use in the EU.

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use sent its recommendation to EMA on December 15. Assuming the regulator grants marketing authorization, CT-P10 will be sold as Truxima™ and will be indicated for the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, RA, granulomatosis with polyangiitis GPA, and microscopic polyangiitis.

The originator product in the EU is MabThera®, which was licensed in 1998. If approved, it will be the first CD20-inhibiting monoclonal antibody to reach the market in a biosimilar version.

In other news from Europe: EMA Launches Consulting Pilot for Biosimilar Manufacturers. In what may be a page taken the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) playbook, the EMA is offering scientific advice, starting February 2017, for companies seeking to bring a biosimilar to market. As part of the FDA’s biosimilar development program, it meets with manufacturers at various stages to consult on their analytical and clinical testing projects. The EMA’s pilot initiative does seem to be more limited, however, in that it offers a presubmission consultation. The pilot is said to run for up to 6 requests for scientic advice.