Duality Biologics and GSK enter into an exclusive option agreement to exploit gastrointestinal cancer target, DB-1324 On December 4, 2024, Duality Biologics (“DualityBio”), a clinical-stage biotech company focusing on the discovery and development of next-generation antibody-drug conjugate (“ADC”) therapeutics, announced an exclusive option agreement with GSK for DualityBio’s ADC candidate,…
Alvotech recently submitted a Citizen Petition to the FDA requesting that the agency refuse to license any ustekinumab biosimilar as interchangeable with STELARA if it is manufactured using a Chinese hamster ovary (“CHO”) cell line—and in particular Samsung Bioepis’s PYZCHIVA (ustekinumab-ttwe). Alvotech stated that “unless and until the Agency has…
We recently posted on a new FDA draft guidance entitled “Postapproval Manufacturing Changes to Biosimilar and Interchangeable Biosimilar Products Questions and Answers,” aimed at providing “answers to commonly asked questions from applicants and other interested parties . . . regarding postapproval manufacturing changes . . . made to licensed biosimilars…
Acuitas Therapeutics Inc. (“Acuitas”) filed a complaint (1-24-cv-00816) on July 12 against Alnylam Pharmaceutical Inc. (“Alnylam”) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, alleging incorrect inventorship of seven U.S. Patents related to COVID-19 mRNA-LNP vaccines, namely U.S. Patent Nos. 11,246,933 (“the ʼ933 patent”), 11,382,979 (“the ʼ979 patent”),…
Earlier this month, FDA approved Boehringer Ingelheim’s high-concentration (100 mg/mL), citrate-free formulation, CYLTEZO (adalimumab-adbm), a biosimilar to Humira (adalimumab). CYLTEZO was first approved in the US in 2017 and later approved in the US as an interchangeable biosimilar to Humira in October 2021. A lower concentration version of CYLTEZO (50…
On April 4, 2024, Bristol Myers Squibb (“BMS”) and 2seventy bio, Inc. announced that the FDA has approved ABECMA (idecabtagene vicleucel) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma after two or more prior lines of therapy including an immunomodulatory agent (IMiD), a proteasome inhibitor (PI),…
In honor of Women’s History Month, Big Molecule Watch recognizes Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, who won the Nobel Prize for a method for genome editing, commonly called CRISPR or “molecular scissors”. By sharing the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Charpentier and Doudna were the first women-only Nobel team in the…
On December 19, a German court invalidated CureVac’s messenger RNA technology patent, EP 1 857 122 B1, in a lawsuit brought by CureVac against its rival BioNTech. CureVac, a biopharmaceutical company developing messenger RNA therapeutics for COVID-19 vaccines, announced that it will appeal the decision before the German Federal Court…
According to PWC, “2023 was a reasonably strong year for the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector with both deal value and volume of M&A close to pre-pandemic levels.” Below is a recap of the top M&A deals in 2023 that focus on biologics and biosimilars and were covered on the…
Acuitas Therapeutics Inc. (“Acuitas”) filed a complaint on November 13 against CureVac in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, alleging incorrect inventorship of four U.S. Patents related to COVID-19 mRNA-LNP vaccines and assigned to CureVac, namely U.S. Patent Nos. 11,241,493, 11,471,525, 11,576,966, and 11,596,686, (collectively, the…