Kelly Davio

October 29, 2019

Albert Bourla, DVM, PhD, Pfizer’s chief executive officer, announced during the company’s third quarter 2019 earnings call that Pfizer has set launch dates for its biosimilar rituximab, Ruxience (referencing Rituxan), and trastuzumab, Trazimera (referencing Herceptin).

October 29, 2019

This week, clinicians gathered in San Antonio, Texas, for the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG)’s 2019 meeting, where a number of presentations focused on the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. During the congress, 2 studies presented addressed adverse events (AEs) associated with—one of which was resolved by—the use of biosimilar infliximab, CT-P13 (Inflectra).

October 29, 2019

Drug maker Revance Therapeutics has announced positive results from its SAKURA clinical program for its daxibotulinumtoxinA, a novel botulinum toxin type A that it hopes will compete with brand-name Botox, or onabotulinumtoxinA.

October 28, 2019

Researchers reported on 1-year follow-up among patients at 2 centers, all of whom had psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, after Brazilian health authorities issued a 2017 mandate that patients being treated with the reference infliximab be switched to CT-P13, and that new starts be given the biosimilar instead of the reference.

October 25, 2019

When it comes to considering using biosimilars, savings for patients are providers’ top concern, followed by savings to the healthcare system at large. Yet physicians also rate their own confidence levels in biosimilars as a main hurdle for widespread biosimilar adoption.

October 25, 2019

The Canadian Association of Gastroenterology and Crohn’s and Colitis Canada this week announced a joint statement on biosimilars in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The paper, which is slated to appear in the Journal of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology, recommends that patients stable on biologic treatment should not be subject to nonmedical switching, and recommends against automatic substitution of biosimilars for their references.

October 24, 2019

A new research report from Milliman, commissioned by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), found that fewer than half of patients with blood cancer received treatment within 3 months of diagnosis, and LLS says that costs may be keeping patients from getting care.

October 24, 2019

Writing in a viewpoint in JAMA, Walid F. Gellad, MD, MPH, and Chester B. Good, MD, MPH, both of the University of Pittsburgh, argue that the deep cost savings achieved in Europe for biosimilar adalimumab are unavailable to the United States because of settlements struck between AbbVie and the developers of all FDA-approved biosimilars.

October 23, 2019

While providers are increasingly comfortable with switching patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) from reference biologics to biosimilars on the basis of a wealth of reassuring data on the safety and efficacy of such transitions, there are fewer data available about switching among multiple biosimilars of the same reference.

October 22, 2019

Therapeutic drug monitoring is of particular importance in optimizing treatment for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who are receiving therapy with anti–tumor necrosis (anti-TNF) drugs like adalimumab. This week, during the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) Week 2019 meeting, held in Barcelona, Spain, researchers will present new findings on monitoring serum trough levels of Samsung Bioepis’ biosimilar adalimumab, Imraldi, in patients with IBD.