The high cost of Alexion’s ultra-orphan disease MAb Soliris (eculizumab) drove Amgen’s decision to develop a biosimilar version, says SVP of Global Development Elliott Levy. Soliris (eculizumab) is an approved treatment for orphan diseases paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (a-HUS) treatment. The monoclonal antibody (MAb) was – until the arrivals of CAR-T and gene therapies Kymriah, Yescarta and Luxturna last year – the most expensive drug in the world, and netted Alexion $3.1 billion (€2.8 billion)…

Truxima becomes the 15th biosimilar, and the first version of Rituxan (rituximab), to be approved in the US. A settlement agreement with Roche will allow Teva to market the product but the launch date has not been revealed. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the thumbs up to Truxima this week, making it the first biosimilar version of Roche/Genentech’s Rituxan to be approved in the US. The product is manufactured by South Korean firm Celltrion but will be…

Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services has launched a bioconjugation technology it says has high productivity and short conjugation reaction times. According to contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Aji Bio-Pharma, its AJICAP technology lets antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) developers better control the location of payload conjugation to an antibody and fine tune the quantity of payload attached. “The technology deploys a proprietary affinity peptide to direct controlled conjugation to a specific sites on the antibody in a relatively straight forward synthetic process,” Jason…

German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim will not commercialize its approved adalimumab product Cyltezo in Europe and is discontinuing all biosimilar development activities outside the US. Earlier this month, an article published in Bioprocess Insider considering the impending exit of Big Pharma from the biosimilars space brought a lot of attention from industry and investors. The piece drew on Merck KGaA’s abandonment of its biosimilars programs in 2017 as an example, and now fellow German Big Pharma firm Boehringer Ingelheim is contemplating…

Amgen withdrew its membership from advocacy group The Biosimilars Forum in September after disagreeing on how best to support the US biosimilar market. Nonprofit organization The Biosimilars Forum was setup in 2015 “to advance biosimilars in the United States with the intent of expanding access and availability of biological medicines, and improving health care… [by providing] evidence-based information to inform and support public policies that encourage awareness, access, and adoption of biosimilars,” according to its mission statement. The founding 11…

Fresh from acquiring CAR-T firm Juno Therapeutics, Celgene is investing in patient treatment centers and building out its manufacturing capacity. In March, Celgene Corporation completed the $9 billion (€7.9 billion) acquisition of Juno Therapeutics, adding chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell technology and manufacturing capabilities, along with a pipeline of hematology and oncology therapies. Speaking at the Credit Suisse 27th Annual Healthcare Conference last week, CFO David Elkins said its numerous CAR-T collaborations – the firm has a co-development deal with…