Tag: generic drugs

Hundred dollar bills rolled up in a pill bottle

Ketamine Is the New Viagra

Vincent Joralemon Leave a comment

By Vincent Joralemon

Spravato, the first FDA-approved psychedelic therapy, just outsold Viagra. Johnson & Johnson’s ketamine-based formulation generated $183 million in Q3, surpassing Pfizer’s erectile dysfunction (ED) drug, which earned $110 million over the same period. Remarkably, a therapeutic made from ketamine, once dismissed as a “club drug” or “horse tranquilizer,” now sells more than one of the most notable 21st-century pharmaceuticals. 

Yet, these two drugs have more in common than meets the eye, and the path Spravato has taken looks strangely similar to that of Viagra. By looking at the journey traversed by Viagra over the past twenty years, we can predict where Spravato (and other psychedelic therapies) are headed.

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yellow capsules on a blue background.

Fatty Acids, Skinny Labels: Fish Oil Patent Battle Back in Court

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Gregory Curfman

An ongoing patent battle over omega-3 fatty acids, colloquially known as as fish oils, may have broad implications for the marketing of generic drugs.

Icosapent ethyl (Vascepa®) is an omega-3 fatty acid preparation used to treat high triglycerides.  It was explicitly designed to be different from most other omega-3 fatty acid preparations — instead of containing a mixture two fatty acids (docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid), it is a purified preparation of just the latter, and it is a much higher dose than what is typically used.

On the basis of the ANCHOR and MARINE clinical trials, in 2012 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Vascepa for the treatment of persons with severe hypertriglyceridemia.

In 2015, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, a generic drug company, filed an abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) for its generic formulation of icosapent ethyl.

The manufacturer of branded Vascepa, Amarin Corporation, promptly filed a patent infringement lawsuit citing six method of use patents (the ‘728, ‘715, ‘677, ‘652, ‘560, ‘929 patents) on Vascepa that the company believed were infringed by Hikma’s ANDA.

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LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM- 1 APRIL 2015: A newspaper rack holding several international newspapers, such as The International New York Times, USA Today, Irish Times, Londra Sera and Corriere Della Sera.

Monthly Round-Up of What to Read on Pharma Law and Policy

Ameet Sarpatwari Leave a comment

By Ameet Sarpatwari, Beatrice Brown, Alexander Egilman, Aviva Wang, and Aaron S. Kesselheim

Each month, members of the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL) review the peer-reviewed medical literature to identify interesting empirical studies, policy analyses, and editorials on health law and policy issues.

Below are the citations for papers identified from the month of July. The selections feature topics ranging from a discussion of issues related to FDA’s approval of aducanumab for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, to an analysis of the communication of survival data in cancer drug labels, to an evaluation of public-sector contributions to novel biologic drugs. A full posting of abstracts/summaries of these articles may be found on our website.

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A male pharmacist is examining a drug from a pharmacy inventory.

Monthly Round-Up of What to Read on Pharma Law and Policy

Ameet Sarpatwari Leave a comment

By Ameet Sarpatwari, Beatrice Brown, Alexander Egilman, and Aaron S. Kesselheim

Each month, members of the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL) review the peer-reviewed medical literature to identify interesting empirical studies, policy analyses, and editorials on health law and policy issues.

Below are the citations for papers identified from the month of June. The selections feature topics ranging from an analysis of the characteristics of clinical studies supporting supplemental indications approved between 2017 and 2019, to an evaluation of the effect of California’s prescription drug coupon ban on generic drug use, to a comparison of how various international regulatory bodies approach postmarket safety communication. A full posting of abstracts/summaries of these articles may be found on our website.

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a pill in place of a model globe

Monthly Round-Up of What to Read on Pharma Law and Policy 

Ameet Sarpatwari Leave a comment

By Ameet Sarpatwari, Beatrice Brown, Neeraj Patel, and Aaron S. Kesselheim

Each month, members of the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL) review the peer-reviewed medical literature to identify interesting empirical studies, policy analyses, and editorials on pharmaceutical policy.

Below are the citations for papers identified from the month of March. The selections feature topics ranging from a commentary on the evidence base for the Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab (which is currently under FDA review), to a comparative study of drug pricing in the U.S. and France, to a study of the demographic characteristics of participants in vaccine trials leading to FDA approval. A full posting of abstracts/summaries of these articles may be found on our website.

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Hundred dollar bills rolled up in a pill bottle

New Rule Might Increase Out-of-Pocket Drug Costs for Patients

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

This blog post is adapted from a commentary published in the American Journal of Managed Care.

By Bryan Walsh and Aaron S. Kesselheim

Patients may face increased out-of-pocket drug costs as a result of a new rule finalized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in July 2020 that would permit wide use of co-pay accumulator adjustment programs (CAAPs).

These increased costs may have effects on medication adherence, and in turn may affect health outcomes. In a recent commentary published in the American Journal of Managed Care, we explain the background to this rule and suggest ways CMS could narrow it to avoid these potential negative effects.

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Gavel surrounded by piles of money.

3 Challenges to Patents on Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibodies

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Gregory Curfman

Three new developments — two based on litigation and one based on a federal statute — may have significant effects on pharmaceutical manufacturers’ use of patents to fend off competition and maintain high prices for therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.

Highly specific monoclonal antibodies have played an increasingly important role as precision therapies for a growing number of diseases, including malignant, cardiovascular, and inflammatory conditions. As therapies derived from research and development, therapeutic monoclonal antibodies may be — and usually are — patented, providing manufacturers with protection from competition and the prospect of high revenues.

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Hundred dollar bills rolled up in a pill bottle

AbbVie Wins First Round in Humira Antitrust Lawsuit

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Ryan Knox and Gregory Curfman

Since receiving FDA approval for Humira® (adalimumab) in 2002, AbbVie, the drug’s manufacturer, has filed hundreds of submissions to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for secondary patents – almost half of which were filed after 2014, just two years before the expiration of its core patent.

These patents were largely directed to methods of use and potential formulation changes, but they did not include claims that affect the clinical efficacy of the biologic, which is used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and psoriasis, among other conditions. Instead, the purpose of the secondary patent filings was to assemble a thicket of patents, 132 in all, to prohibit competition from biosimilar companies.

And so far, the strategy has worked. AbbVie remains the sole U.S. manufacturer of the biologic, and has successfully defended its domain: in June 2020, a federal district court judge in Chicago dismissed an antitrust lawsuit against AbbVie.

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Map of United States made up of pills.

Monthly Round-Up of What to Read on Pharma Law and Policy

Ameet Sarpatwari Leave a comment

By Ameet Sarpatwari, Beatrice Brown, Neeraj Patel, and Aaron S. Kesselheim

Each month, members of the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL) review the peer-reviewed medical literature to identify interesting empirical studies, policy analyses, and editorials on health law and policy issues.

Below are the citations for papers identified from the month of September. The selections feature topics ranging from commentaries on political pressures and questions of integrity facing the FDA, to a critique of the financial incentive structure for antibiotic development, to an estimation of how much NHS England would spend if it paid U.S. Medicare Part D prices. A full posting of abstracts/summaries of these articles may be found on our website.

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a pill in place of a model globe

Monthly Round-Up of What to Read on Pharma Law and Policy

Ameet Sarpatwari Leave a comment

By Ameet Sarpatwari, Beatrice Brown, Neeraj Patel, and Aaron S. Kesselheim

Each month, members of the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL) review the peer-reviewed medical literature to identify interesting empirical studies, policy analyses, and editorials on health law and policy issues.

Below are the citations for papers identified from the month of August. The selections feature topics ranging from a commentary on the need for rigorous scientific evaluation of COVID-19 vaccine candidates in the face of political and economic pressures, to an evaluation of patients’ and pharmacists’ experiences with pill appearance changes, to an examination of the extent and cost of potentially inappropriate prescription drug prescriptions for older adults. A full posting of abstracts/summaries of these articles may be found on our website.

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