Goodwin (JD Supra Australia)

Last week, Apotex Australia, an affiliate of the Canadian-based Apotex, Inc., announced a proposed merger of their Australian and New Zealand generic pharmaceutical and over-the-counter (OTC) operations with Arrow Pharmaceutical. This combined operation aims to offer pharmacists, patients and consumers a diverse range of almost 500 products, and permit the expansion of current product ranges,...

The Australian Federal Court recently ruled that to be eligible for an extension, a patent must cover a “product” rather than a “method of use.” AbbVie Biotechnology Ltd (AbbVie) filed requests to extend Australian patents 2012261708, 2013203420 and 2013257402, which cover methods of producing adalimumab using recombinant DNA technology.

According to BioPharma-reporter, Pfizer will close the Australian plant at which Pfizer manufactures API for HSP-130, a biosimilar version of Amgen’s Neulasta, by 2021. Pfizer will move production of the API to Croatia in an effort to consolidate manufacturing. HSP130 is currently in clinical trials.

Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) announced that Brenzys, an etanercept biosimilar, “could be marked as equivalent” to the branded antibody Enbrel on the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). Considering the clinical evidence presented, PBAC recommended that there was “comparative safety and effectiveness of Brenzys and Enbrel.”

On July 22, 2016, Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration approved Samsung Bioepis’s biosimilar of Amgen’s Enbrel (etanercept), which is approved for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Samsung Bioepis’s product, called Brenzys, will be available as a pre-filled auto-injector and sold in Australia by Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Merck & Co.’s international subsidiary.