Watson announced yesterday that it is tying up with Amgen to develop biosimilars of ‘several’ oncology monoclonal antibodies. Under the terms of the deal, Amgen will have the main responsibility for the actual development work, as well as manufacture and initial commercialisation (under a...
No happy Christmas for Turkish pharma producers
Just in time for Christmas, the Turkish government has announced another round of price cuts for pharmaceuticals. As of this month, the maximum prices of generics and off-patent brands will be set at 60% of the originator price pre-patent expiry, vs 66% previously. In...
The end is nigh: Teva admits that sales have peaked in the US
On Teva’s recent Q3 results conference call, the company’s US head, Bill Marth, admitted for the first time that the US generics market is now ex-growth, at least as far as Teva is concerned. Given that the company’s North American generic sales were down...
Mylan joins the queue for generic Advair
Mylan announced last Wednesday that it would spend $17.5m to purchase the worldwide rights* to Pfizer’s generic version of GSK’s blockbuster respiratory drug, Advair. In addition, it will take on a group of Pfizer scientists based in Sandwich in the UK, the site of...
Acino snaps up Cephalon’s MENA portfolio
Acino announced this morning that it is to pay €80m for the MENA assets of Cephalon, the acquisition of which by Teva also closed today. As an Israeli company, Teva is precluded from operating in a number of Middle Eastern territories, and clearly decided...
Hikma buys in Morocco – what’s not to like?
Looking at Promopharm’s historic sales development, which has been much slower than the Moroccan market as a whole, we get the impression that the company has been somewhat dozy in the past. Hikma clearly thinks so too, as it plans to increase the size...
Bad news from Bad Vilbel: Stada’s woes deepen
These are difficult days for Stada. The announcement that it was taking a further write-down of receivables in Serbia of close to €100m – equivalent to more than a year of Serbian sales – led to a 19% decline in the company’s share price...
Competition in biosimilars hots up (slightly) as Richter and Stada join foces
Richter and Stada announced today that they are combining their efforts in the field of mAbs, with a view to developing two key products, rituximab and trastuzumab, in a cost-effective manner. Under the terms of their agreement, Stada has paid Richter an up-front fee...
Mandatory INN precribing comes to Spain – good news for some
The Spanish parliament has recently approved legislation that will make INN prescribing mandatory, thus transforming Spain into a fully unbranded market. In reality, things have been moving in this direction for some time, with individual provinces forcing the GPs in their area to prescribe...
End of an era in Poland as Valeant plans closure of Jelfa facility
It was announced in May that the US specialty pharma company, Valeant, had agreed to buy the Lithuanian drug company Sanitas for €314m, a deal that is expected to close by the end of Q3 this year. At its Q2 results conference call last...