Samantha DiGrande

August 21, 2018

The product did not earn approval for all indications of the reference Herceptin; it has been approved only for the treatment of HER2-positive gastric cancers, and not for the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer.

August 20, 2018

The researchers concluded that rituximab should be considered as a preferred biologic treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) therapy, though treatment of RA with any biologic medication improved quality of life significantly.

August 18, 2018

This week, JHL Biotech announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency has granted the company positive scientific advice to begin a phase 3 clinical trial of its proposed trastuzumab biosimilar, JHL1188.

August 17, 2018

Although the policy change was intended to cut out-of-pocket drug costs for patients, a number of organizations, including the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), have argued that step therapy can be harmful to patients with chronic conditions. On Wednesday, ACR met with HHS Secretary Alex Azar to discuss their concerns.

August 16, 2018

As biosimilar competition nears for Roche and its subsidiary, Genentech, a new WARN notice in the state of California disclosed that Genentech is set to lay off 223 employees from a local plant beginning August 31, 2018.

August 15, 2018

Clinical director of the Irish health technology assessment (HTA) body National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics (NCP), Michael Barry, MB, FRCPI, PhD, recently said in an interview with Irish media that the lack of uptake of biosimilars in Ireland is “an issue that should be tackled,” and he proposed approaches to do just that.

August 14, 2018

CVS Caremark will allow clients to exclude any drug launched at a price greater than $100,000 per quality-adjusted life year from their plans.

August 13, 2018

This month, AbbVie filed suit against biosimilar developer Sandoz over its proposed adalimumab (Humira) biosimilar. The suit was filed in the District of New Jersey and alleges infringement under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act.

August 11, 2018

Combination treatment is typically more effective than treatment with methotrexate alone, but some patients may experience adverse events with methotrexate that make monotherapy desirable.

August 10, 2018

This week, Samsung, the parent company of Samsung BioLogics and biosimilar development company Samsung Bioepis, announced plans to invest $22 billion across business lines, including biopharmaceuticals.