Acquisitions and spin-offs dominated headlines in 2019 and the tone was set very early with Bristol-Myers Squibb acquiring
New Jersey-based cancer drug company Celgene in a US$ 74 billion deal announced on
January 3, 2019. After factoring
in debt, the deal value ballooned to about US$ 95 billion, which according
to data compiled by Refinitiv, made it the largest healthcare deal on
record.
In the summer, AbbVie Inc,
which sells the world’s best-selling drug Humira, announced its acquisition of Allergan Plc, known for Botox and other cosmetic
treatments, for US$ 63 billion. While the companies are still awaiting
regulatory approval for their deal, with US$ 49 billion in combined 2019
revenues, the merged entity would rank amongst the biggest in the industry.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2019 (Free Excel Available)
The big five by pharmaceutical sales — Pfizer,
Roche, J&J, Novartis and Merck
Pfizer
continued
to lead companies by pharmaceutical sales by reporting annual 2019 revenues of
US$ 51.8 billion, a decrease of US$ 1.9 billion, or 4 percent, compared to
2018. The decline was primarily attributed to the loss of exclusivity of Lyrica in 2019,
which witnessed its sales drop from US$ 5 billion in 2018 to US$ 3.3 billion in
2019.
In 2018, Pfizer’s then incoming CEO Albert Bourla had mentioned that the company did not see the need for any large-scale M&A activity as Pfizer had “the best pipeline” in its history, which needed the company to focus on deploying its capital to keep its pipeline flowing and execute on its drug launches.
Bourla stayed true to his word and barring the acquisition of Array Biopharma for US$ 11.4 billion and a spin-off to merge Upjohn, Pfizer’s off-patent branded and generic established medicines business with
Mylan, there weren’t any other big ticket deals which were announced.
The
Upjohn-Mylan merged entity will be called Viatris and is expected to have 2020
revenues between US$ 19 and US$ 20 billion
and could outpace Teva to
become the largest generic company in the world, in term of revenues.
Novartis, which had
followed Pfizer with the second largest revenues in the pharmaceutical industry
in 2018, reported its first full year earnings after spinning off its Alcon eye
care devices business division that
had US$ 7.15 billion in 2018 sales.
In 2019,
Novartis slipped two spots in the ranking after reporting total sales of US$
47.4 billion and its CEO Vas Narasimhan continued his deal-making spree by buying New
Jersey-headquartered The Medicines Company (MedCo) for US$ 9.7
billion to acquire a late-stage cholesterol-lowering
therapy named inclisiran.
As Takeda Pharmaceutical Co was
busy in 2019 on working to reduce its debt burden incurred due to its US$ 62
billion purchase of Shire Plc, which was announced in 2018, Novartis also purchased
the eye-disease medicine, Xiidra, from the Japanese drugmaker for US$ 5.3 billion.
Novartis’ management also spent a considerable part of 2019 dealing with data-integrity concerns which emerged from its 2018 buyout of AveXis, the
gene-therapy maker Novartis had acquired for US$ 8.7 billion.
The deal gave Novartis rights to Zolgensma,
a novel treatment intended for children less than two years of age with the
most severe form of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Priced at US$ 2.1 million,
Zolgensma is currently the world’s most expensive drug.
However,
in a shocking announcement, a month after approving the drug, the US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) issued a press release on
data accuracy issues as the agency was informed by AveXis that
its personnel had manipulated data which
the FDA used to evaluate product comparability and nonclinical (animal)
pharmacology as part of the biologics license application (BLA), which was
submitted and reviewed by the FDA.
With US$
50.0 billion (CHF 48.5 billion) in annual pharmaceutical sales, Swiss drugmaker
Roche came in at number two position in 2019
as its sales grew 11 percent driven by
its multiple sclerosis medicine Ocrevus, haemophilia drug Hemlibra and cancer medicines Tecentriq and Perjeta.
Roche’s newly introduced medicines generated US$ 5.53 billion (CHF 5.4 billion) in growth, helping offset the impact of the competition from biosimilars for its three best-selling drugs MabThera/Rituxan, Herceptin and Avastin.
In late 2019, after months of increased
antitrust scrutiny, Roche completed
its US$ 5.1 billion acquisition of Spark Therapeutics to strengthen its presence in
gene therapy.
Last year, J&J reported almost flat worldwide sales of US$ 82.1 billion. J&J’s pharmaceutical division generated US$ 42.20 billion and its medical devices and consumer health divisions brought in US$ 25.96 billion and US$ 13.89 billion respectively.
Since J&J’s consumer health division sells analgesics, digestive health along with beauty and oral care products, the US$ 5.43 billion in consumer health sales from over-the-counter drugs and women’s health products was only used in our assessment of J&J’s total pharmaceutical revenues. With combined pharmaceutical sales of US$ 47.63 billion, J&J made it to number three on our list.
While the sales of products like Stelara, Darzalex, Imbruvica, Invega Sustenna drove J&J’s pharmaceutical business to grow by 4 percent over 2018, the firm had to contend with generic competition against key revenue contributors Remicade and Zytiga.
US-headquartered Merck, which is known as
MSD (short for Merck Sharp & Dohme) outside the United States and
Canada, is set to significantly move up the rankings next year fueled by its
cancer drug Keytruda, which witnessed a 55
percent increase in sales to US$ 11.1 billion.
Merck reported total revenues of US$ 41.75 billion and also
announced it will spin off its women’s health drugs,
biosimilar drugs and older products to create a new pharmaceutical
company with US$ 6.5 billion in annual revenues.
The firm had anticipated 2020 sales between US$ 48.8 billion and US$ 50.3 billion however this week it announced that the coronavirus pandemic will reduce 2020 sales by more than $2 billion.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2019 (Free Excel Available)
Humira holds on to remain world’s best-selling drug
AbbVie’s acquisition of Allergan comes as the firm faces the expiration of patent protection for Humira, which brought in a staggering US$ 19.2 billion in sales last year for
the company. AbbVie has failed to successfully acquire or develop a major new
product to replace the sales generated by its flagship drug.
In 2019, Humira’s US revenues increased 8.6 percent to US$ 14.86 billion while internationally, due
to biosimilar competition, the sales dropped 31.1 percent to US$ 4.30 billion.
Bristol Myers Squibb’s Eliquis, which is also marketed by Pfizer, maintained its number two position
and posted total sales of US$ 12.1 billion, a 23 percent increase over 2018.
While Bristol Myers Squibb’s immunotherapy treatment Opdivo, sold in partnership with Ono in Japan, saw sales increase from US$ 7.57 billion to US$ 8.0 billion, the growth paled in comparison to the US$ 3.9
billion revenue increase of Opdivo’s key immunotherapy competitor Merck’s Keytruda.
Keytruda took the number three spot in drug sales that
previously belonged to Celgene’s Revlimid, which witnessed a sales decline from US$ 9.69 billion to US$ 9.4 billion.
Cancer treatment Imbruvica, which is marketed
by J&J and AbbVie, witnessed a 30 percent increase in sales. With US$ 8.1
billion in 2019 revenues, it took the number five position.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2019 (Free Excel Available)
Vaccines – Covid-19 turns competitors into partners
This year has been dominated by the single biggest health emergency in years — the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. As drugs continue to fail to meet expectations, vaccine development has received a lot of attention.
GSK reported the highest vaccine sales of all drugmakers with
total sales of US$ 8.4 billion (GBP 7.16 billion), a significant portion of its
total sales of US$ 41.8 billion (GBP 33.754 billion).
US-based Merck’s vaccine division also reported a significant increase in sales to US$ 8.0 billion and in 2019 received FDA and EU approval to market its Ebola vaccine Ervebo.
This is the first FDA-authorized vaccine against the deadly virus which causes
hemorrhagic fever and spreads from person to person through direct contact with
body fluids.
Pfizer and Sanofi also reported an increase in their vaccine sales to US$ 6.4
billion and US$ 6.2 billion respectively and the Covid-19 pandemic has recently
pushed drugmakers to move faster than ever before and has also converted
competitors into partners.
In a rare move, drug behemoths — Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) —joined hands to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus.
The two companies plan to start human trials
in the second half of this year, and if things go right, they will file
for potential approvals by the second half of 2021.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2019 (Free Excel Available)
Our view
Covid-19 has brought the world economy to a grinding halt and shifted the global attention to the pharmaceutical industry’s capability to deliver solutions to address this pandemic.
Our compilation shows that vaccines and drugs
for infectious diseases currently form a tiny fraction of the total sales of
pharmaceutical companies and few drugs against infectious diseases rank high on
the sales list.
This could well explain the limited range of
options currently available to fight Covid-19. With the pandemic currently infecting
over 3 million people spread across more than 200 countries, we can safely
conclude that the scenario in 2020 will change substantially. And so should our
compilation of top drugs for the year.
View Our Interactive Dashboard on Top drugs by sales in 2019 (Free Excel Available)
Impressions: 54752
GSK, Google form first bioelectronics firm; 11 generic companies benefit from the Teva Allergan deal
This week,
Phispers brings to you the details of the bioelectronics firm formed by GSK and
Google. There is also news on companies like Teva, Takeda, Jinan Jinda and Eli
Lilly, besides two other news snippets pertaining to the FDA -- while the first
one pertains to generic approvals, the other one relates to an additional black
box warning on a few antibiotics. GSK and Google
join hands to form first bioelectronics startupGlaxoSmithKline and Google’s parent company – Alphabet – have joined hands to create a new company that is focused on fighting diseases by targeting electrical signals in the human body. This way, GSK and Alphabet’s life sciences unit – known as Verily Life Sciences – will be jump-starting a new field of medicine known as bioelectronics.Verily Life
Sciences and GSK will together contribute US $ 715.12
million
over seven years to the startup Galvani Bioelectronics. The startup will develop
miniature electronic implants for the treatment of asthma, diabetes and other
chronic conditions. The
implantable devices developed by Galvani, which is owned 55 percent by GSK and
45 percent by Verily, can modify electrical nerve signals. The aim is to
modulate irregular or altered impulses that occur in many illnesses.The
new company
will be based at GSK’s Stevenage research center north of London, with a second research hub in South San Francisco.The announcement comes just weeks after GSK had said it was going to use Apple’s HealthKit to conduct clinical trials.Three years ago, GSK had first unveiled its ambitions in bioelectronics in the journal – Nature. Bioelectronic remedies attach battery-powered implants the size of a grain of rice (or even smaller) to individual nerves to correct faulty electrical signals between the nervous system and the body’s organs.GSK believes altering these nerve signals could open up the airways of asthma patients, reduce inflammation in the gut from Crohn’s disease and treat patients with a range of other chronic ailments such as arthritis. So far, the implants have only been tested on animals but the aim is to produce treatments that will supplement or replace drugs that often come with side-effects.GSK
has been working on bioelectronic medicines since 2012 in a push to develop new
patentable treatments, since its Advair respiratory treatment faces competition
from generic versions. It has invested US $50 million in a venture capital fund
for bioelectronics and provided funding to scientists working in the field. Teva divests 79
products to 11 generic players to close Allergan dealTeva
Pharmaceutical Industries – the world’s largest generics drug company – won a US
anti-trust approval to purchase Allergan's generics
business, after agreeing to divest 79 generic drugs to rival firms. This was arrived
at to settle Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) charges that its proposed US $ 40.5 billion acquisition of Allergan’s generic pharmaceutical business would be anti-competitive. The remedy requires Teva to divest the drug portfolio to 11 firms, and marks the largest drug divestiture order in a FTC pharmaceutical merger case.The Teva-Allergan deal, which was announced in July 2015, solidifies Teva’s position as the world's largest maker of generics while freeing Allergan to focus on branded drugs.The
companies that
have acquired
the divested products are Mayne Pharma
Group, Impax
Laboratories, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Sagent
Pharmaceuticals, Cipla Limited, Zydus Worldwide
DMCC, Mikah Pharma, Perrigo Pharma
International, Aurobindo
Pharma USA,
Prasco and 3M Company. Eli Lilly CEO
steps down; company under probe by US Justice Department Eli Lilly CEO John
Lechleiter has stepped down after steering the pharma company through long R&D droughts. The company’s president David Ricks will move up to the top spot. And after a brief spell as executive chairman, Lechleiter will leave the company next spring.Lechleiter
has been the company's CEO since April 1, 2008, and the chairman of its board
of directors since January 1, 2009.The
announcement has come at a time when Eli Lilly has been asked by the
Justice Department to disclose information on relationships with pharmacy benefits
managers (PBMs), the companies that negotiate prices and set reimbursement
conditions.It
has not been clear what exactly the department of justice is looking for. In
the past, drug makers such as Novartis and AstraZeneca have agreed to
pay fines and penalties to settle allegations pertaining to PBMs. FDA continues
to race ahead with generic approvals The
American regulator has reduced its pile of ANDA (abbreviated new drug
applications) by about 500
applications in the first six months of 2016. The FDA has also approved 315 more ANDAs over the same time period and has sent 66 more complete response letters — or rejections — to drug makers.This
news comes after Bloomberg reported
last month that the FDA has become ‘something of a bogeyman’ for India’s stock markets by approving generic drug applications from India at a record place. Similarly, PharmaCompass
had reported last week that Indian
companies have been fixing compliance issues. China’s Jinan Jinda fails another EDQM inspection; compliance troubles in Denmark In
regulatory news from across the world, Jinan Jinda, a Chinese API
manufacturer that had failed an inspection by Italian regulators in June 2015,
had more bad news awaiting it a year on. In
a June 2016
re-inspection, this time by the Spanish Health Authority, the regulator maintained the ‘facilities non-compliance standing’ since two critical observations were made and the corrections from the previous inspection “were found as not having been implemented in a satisfactory way”. And critical deficiencies were found on raw data.In
the June 2015 inspection, the critical observation was related to an unofficial
and non-controlled storage area containing mainly raw materials and finished
products which had been made
inaccessible to inspectors as the door had been removed and replaced with a panel fixed with
screws to the wall.Meanwhile,
the FDA issued an untitled letter (dated July 15, 2016) to Danish allergy
immunotherapy company ALK-Abelló (ALK) over manufacturing and quality control issues at its Horsholm, Denmark facility. The letter comes after a 12-day inspection of the facility in March 2016. During the inspection, the FDA had cited ALK for four “significant deviations” from cGMP requirements. Another black
box warning added to antibiotics like Cipro and LevaquinThe
FDA has upgraded
warnings on
certain antibiotics, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Levaquin, Bayer’s Cipro
extended-release tablets and Merck’s Avelox. The FDA had
added a black box warning in 2008 about the increased risk of tendinitis in
which the tissue connecting muscle to bone becomes inflamed. In
May this year, the FDA had advised restricting the use of fluoroquinolone antibiotic for certain uncomplicated
infections and had warned about the disabling side-effects of the drug.The new warning talks about long-term risks to the drugs’ current black box warning. The agency also advised using the drugs only for serious infections. Manufacturers of fluoroquinolone have faced thousands of lawsuits from patients who claim that their injuries were caused by the drugs. J&J alone faced 3,400 lawsuits over Levaquin’s links to tendon problems and has also settled many of those cases. Takeda to
overhaul R&D, downsize operations in the UKTakeda Pharmaceutical of Japan has
said it plans to build a new pipeline of drugs. It plans to revamp its
research operations at the cost of around US $ 727 million.. The
company also plans to close some of its R&D operations in the UK. Takeda is
beginning the first ‘consultation stage’ of the layoff process in the UK, which hosts a pre-clinical R&D operation in Cambridge as well as a development center headquarter with facilities in the UK, Switzerland and Denmark.Under the revamp, Takeda’s R&D activities will be concentrated in Japan and the US, the 235-year old drug company said in a statement. Takeda plans to now focus on the three therapeutic areas of oncology, gastroenterology and the central nervous system.“We need to first build new capabilities and embrace new ways of working,” Andy Plump, Takeda’s chief medical and scientific officer, said in the statement.
Impressions: 2757
Each year,
the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approve hundreds
of new medications. A small subset of approvals, classified as novel drugs, are considered to
be truly innovative products that often help advance clinical care.
In 2015, the
FDA approved 45 novel drugs, an all-time record high. PharmaCompass has compiled a list of novel drugs approved by the FDA in 2015.The FDA also approved new dosage forms of existing products in the market (email us if you would like a copy), like the 3D printed version of anti-epilepsy drug, Spritam (Levetiracetam).
This week, PharmaCompass focuses on the new dosage
forms of existing drugs that got approved last year.
Modified blockbusters
Improving the delivery form of a blockbuster drug is something that not only helps patients but often successfully extends the patent life of the cash-generating drugs for Big Pharma. Here are some blockbuster drugs that saw their modified versions being launched in 2015:
Jadenu (deferasirox): With
almost a billion dollars in revenues in 2015, Exjade (deferasirox) was approved in 2005 as a
tablet for use in a suspension. Novartis, the innovator,
got approval in March 2015
for Jadenu, a once-daily oral tablet. Jadenu (deferasirox), a new formulation
of Exjade, is the only once-daily oral tablet for iron chelation. Jadenu has
simplified daily treatment administration for patients with chronic iron
overload.
Nexium
24HR (esomeprazole magnesium): Also
known as the Purple Pill, Nexium – Astra
Zeneca’s blockbuster drug for acid reflux that generated annual sales in America of more than US $ 3 billion – went generic in 2015. In order to extend Nexium’s market, Pfizer and AstraZeneca came together to promote an over-the-counter (OTC) version of Nexium. A capsule version of OTC Nexium was approved in 2014 and is known as
Nexium 24HR. Last year, the FDA granted approval to the tablet form of the
drug.
Iressa
(gefitinib): AstraZeneca re-introduced Iressa in
the US market in 2015. The
FDA had approved Gefitinib in May 2003 for non-small cell lung cancer. Approved
as a third-line therapy, in 2010 the FDA requested AstraZeneca to voluntarily withdraw Iressa tablets
from the market, as post-marketing studies had failed
to verify and confirm clinical benefit. Iressa (gefitinib) is now back in the US as a first-line therapy for a type of lung cancer. However, the patent protection is limited – only one listed patent in the Orange Book which expires next year, and five US Drug Master Files already submitted.
Onivyde (irinotecan): Liposomal formulation of anti-cancer
drugs have been in vogue for some time. Merrimack Pharmaceuticals got its novel encapsulation of Irinotecan in a liposomal formulation approved for the
treatment of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, sold under the brand
name Onivyde.
Vivlodex (meloxicam): In October 2015, the FDA approved 5 mg and 10 mg (administered once daily) doses of Vivlodex™ (meloxicam) capsules, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used for the management of osteoarthritis pain. The previously approved doses for meloxicam capsules were 7.5mg and 15mg. Vivlodex uses a proprietary SoluMatrix Fine Particle Technology™, which contains meloxicam as submicron particles that are approximately 10 times smaller than their original size. The reduction in particle size provides an increased surface area, leading to faster dissolution.
Kalydeco (ivacaftor): A cystic fibrosis drug from Vertex Pharmaceuticals – Kalydeco – has been making headlines
because of its high price (more than US $ 300,000 a year). Price concerns
aside, 2015 saw the launch of a pediatric version of the drug as a ‘weight-based oral granule formulation of Kalydeco that can be mixed in soft foods or liquids’.
Extended release versions
Many of
the approvals granted by the FDA last year were to extended release
formulations (a pill formulated so that the drug is released slowly) of
existing drugs.
Kremers Urban’s
extended release version of Methylphenidate
capsules made headlines last year because of a reclassification of the drug by
the FDA. Under the new classification rating, methylphenidate hydrochloride extended-release tablets can be prescribed but may
not be automatically substituted for J&J’s reference drug Concerta (methylphenidate hydrochloride). Kremers Urban was almost sold last year. But due to this reclassification, investors aborted their US $ 1.53 billion buyout. Kremers Urban was later acquired by Lannett Company Inc.
In
addition, extended-release versions of Aspirin, Carbidopa/Levodopa, Paliperidone Palmitate, Tacrolimus
and Morphine Sulphate also received green signals for a market launch.
First generic opportunities
Last year, PharmaCompass
shared the names of some drugs which had no generic competition and were also
not protected by patents. (Read: “Litigation Free, first generic opportunities list”).
Deferiprone (a drug that chelates iron and is
used to treat iron overload in thalassemia major) met the criteria. But it still
has no generic competitor and is now available as a new dosage form.
Amedra Pharmaceuticals, now owned by Impax Laboratories, has enjoyed the rights to sell Albendazole tablets for almost two decades
without generic competition in the US. Albendazole is a medication used for the
treatment of a variety of parasitic worm infestations. In 2015, patients were
provided access to chewable tablets of Albendazole.
New combinations at work
The FDA also approved
multiple combination drugs where the individual active ingredients had been brought
to market previously.
Most of the combination drugs
approved belong to major pharma players like Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Bristol Myers etc.
Boehringer’s diabetes treatments – Jardiance (empagliflozin) – approved in 2014 and
Tradjenta (linagliptin) approved in 2011, were
combined and the combination drug product Glyxambi was approved in 2015. Another
combination of empagliflozin, with metformin – Synjardy – was also approved in August last
year.
Lesser known companies also
got combination drugs approved. UK-based
development company Vernalis got approval for its cold-cough treatment, Tuzistra XR – an extended release suspension of codeine polistirex and chlorpheniramine
polistirex.
Similarly, US-based biopharmaceutical startup, Spriaso LLC, also
working in the cold and cough therapeutic area, got an extended release tablet
containing codeine phosphate and chlorpheniramine maleate approved.
Symplmed, a company which is
developing various forms of Perindopril, got approval for Prestalia (a
combination of perindopril arginine and amlodipine besylate) for the
treatment of hypertension.
Our view
Each year, the FDA approves several
pharmaceutical drugs in order to improve patient care; and often versions of
these drugs are marketed and distributed across the globe.
PharmaCompass’ list of drugs approved in 2015 is now available – just email us for your copy.
Accelerate your drug development
PharmaCompass has also launched
the Drug Development Assistance tool on its platform.
Simply search for the drug or the active ingredient of your interest, click on the Drug Development icon on the left menu bar and you can see the inactive ingredients used to formulate
the various drug products approved in the United States.
Impressions: 5419
Over
700 commonly used generic medicines were
recommended for suspension by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) based on data
integrity concerns, over clinical studies conducted at GVK Biosciences in
Hyderabad, India.What
will be the global fallout of the European decision? The European decision has
impacted products from companies such as:Abbott Laboratories, Accord Healthcare (Intas), Actavis, Alembic, Apotex, Betapharm (Dr. Reddy’s), Brown & Burk UK, Fair Med Healthcare AG, Glenmark, Lupin, Micro Labs, Mylan, Orion Corporation, Ranbaxy, Ratiopharm, Sandoz, Sanofi-Aventis, Stada, Teva, Torrent, Wockhardt, Zydus… and many, many more.The
original recommendation of suspending
some of the medicines
made in January 2015, was an outcome of an inspection of GVK Biosciences’ site in Hyderabad (GVK BIO is a Clinical Research Organization-
CRO) by the
French medicines agency (ANSM) through the EMA. The EMA stated in their official release: “The
inspection revealed data manipulations of electrocardiograms (ECGs) during the
conduct of some studies of generic medicines, which appeared to have taken
place over a period of at least five years. Their systematic nature, the
extended period of time during which they took place and the number of members
of staff involved cast doubt on the integrity of the conduct of trials at the
site.” 1000 drugs reviewed// 700
rejectedWhile
over 1,000 pharmaceutical forms and strengths were reviewed at the GVK site,
over 300 of them had sufficient supporting data available from other sources.
As a result, these medicines were allowed to remain on the market in the EU.However, for the over 700 other medicines, the EMA after its second review, maintained its previous recommendation of January 2015, to suspend medicines, where no additional supporting data from other studies was available. Only one exception after that second review was spared from suspension, as the company was able to address the EMA’s concerns: it was Bivolet Nebivolol (5 mg tablets/ marketing authorisation holder: Neo Balkanika EOOD).While the agency noted that “there is no evidence of harm or
lack of effectiveness linked to the conduct of studies by GVK Biosciences at
Hyderabad. Some of these medicines may remain on the market” if they are of critical importance for patients. However, the recommendation
will now be sent to the European Commission for a legally binding decision,
which will apply to Member States regardless of the decision taken in the
interim period.The updated list of medicines for which, the CHMP (Committee
for Medicinal Products for Human Use) recommends suspension, is available on the EMA website. Companies
are given 12 months to submit additional data. The potential global impact of the European
suspensions?The GVK Biosciences
scandal is almost as severe in magnitude and impact, as the data falsification
concerns, which were discovered at Ranbaxy (Katherine Eban’s stunning investigation in Fortune, “Dirty Medicine” covers this extensively). One of the main promoters of GVK Biosciences is Mr. D.S. Brar who was CEO & Managing Director of Ranbaxy from 1999-2004. The impact of GVK
Biosciences’ misdeeds is already being felt on new product launches. Mylan recently withdrew its European application for generic
Abilify (aripiprazole) (2014 sales US$6.2x billion) citing “identification of major GCP issues (Good
Clinical Practices).” What about the impact on the US market?In 2010, FDA discovered data integrity
violations, which bankrupted
clinical research organization, Cetero Research/PRACS. Based on the Cetero findings
in the United States, the EMA suspended seven drugs. Now it remains to
be seen, how the FDA will handle the data integrity concerns found in Europe
since products like repaglinide & candesartan cilexitil (Mylan), levetiracetam (Dr. Reddy’s), clonazepam (Sandoz), metformin hydrochloride (Actavis), tacrolimus (Panacea Biotech) all have U.S. FDA approvals. Leading GVK Biosciences’ defense is the Indian government, who warned last month that if the European Union does not reconsider their decision, it may go to the World Trade Organization. The Indian government’s position is based on an appeal by GVK Biosciences, which made the “Indian government set up a panel of experts last year to investigate
the matter and found no manipulation”, GVK Biosciences CEO Manni Kantipudi told Reuters.However, globally reputed GMP expert, Lachman Consultants, believes that the GVK Bioscience episode “could potentially impact data integrity, similar to the Cetero/PRACS
case”.It’s clear for us that this is not the end of the story…
Impressions: 4077