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STAT+: Belgian anti-trust authorities probe Roche for allegedly delaying biosimilars of two cancer meds

STAT

Belgian anti-trust regulators are probing Roche over concerns that the drug company took steps to delay the entry of biosimilar versions of two of its cancer medicines. The agency also maintained Roche disseminated “erroneous information” about using biosimilars in combination therapy.

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STAT+: Coherus works with Mark Cuban to sell biosimilar Humira at steep discounts

STAT

In a bold move, Coherus BioSciences plans to sell a biosimilar version of Humira — one of the world’s best-selling medicines — at a steep discount, and will work with Mark Cuban’s generic drug company to make the medicine available directly to consumers for even less.

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STAT+: As Humira biosimilars take over the market, CVS has created a new ploy: the drug ‘rebate credit’

STAT

The biggest enticement that large pharmacy benefit managers offer to the employers that hire them is drug rebates — a steady stream of money sent back to their clients, a tangible symbol of the discounts that PBMs are able to wrangle out of pharmaceutical companies.

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STAT+: Patent thickets and terminal disclaimers: How pharma blocks biosimilars from the marketplace

STAT

To ring the register, a pharmaceutical company may create a patent thicket , which involves filing dozens of patents that, in some cases, add little value to their medicines but extend precious monopolies. As a result, a drug company can quickly add a number of patents that can be used to protect its medicines from would-be rivals.

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STAT+: Lawmakers want FTC to probe big PBMs over private-label biosimilar deals

STAT

The effort comes after CVS Health and Cigna — which own CVS Caremark and Express Scripts, respectively — launched subsidiaries that are striking “co-manufacturing” deals with companies that make biologic medicines and lower-cost versions known as biosimilars.

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STAT+: Amgen pricing for its Humira biosimilar may benefit PBMs and insurers more than patients

STAT

Underscoring the opaque and confusing nature of pharmaceutical pricing, Amgen announced long-awaited pricing for its biosimilar version of Humira – the world’s best-selling medicine – and the numbers suggest the biggest winners may be health insurers and others in the supply chain, but not patients.

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STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about a key Merck drug trial, cheap Wegovy in China, and more

STAT

Analysts expect that Merck might be able to continue to charge a higher price for the in-office version while competition from biosimilar medicines pushes down the price for Keytruda’s existing formulation.