Biosimilars and Biobetters

The Congressional Budget Office has released a report that provides a picture of the financial impact from the enaction of S.1695, the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2007.

Washington, DC (Feb. 14)?A congressional team has reintroduced the ?Access to Life-Saving Medicine Act,? which establishes a process through which the US Food and Drug Administration can approve generic copies of biologic drugs.

Brussels, Belgium (Dec. 5)-The debate over biosimilars in Europe was heightened last week between the European Generics Association and the International Alliance of Patients Organizations, a patient advocacy group that issued a briefing paper on biosimilars to the European Parliament, the legislative arm of the European Union (EU).

Sandoz (Holzkirchen, Germany), the generics division of Novartis (Basel, Switzerland) received European marketing authorization for its recombinant human growth hormone, ?Omnitrope? (somatropin), making it the first biogeneric product approved under the biosimilar pathway of the European Commission.