A great deal of progress has been made in the treatment of rheumatic diseases—from glucocorticoid use to the advent of biologic therapies. Gerd Burmester, MD, discussed this progress and the impact of biologics in this year’s Phillip Hench, MD, Memorial Lecture.
In a new study, Baker et al. examined reference product and biosimilar orders, comparing data from a Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) to those from an academic medical center…
(Reuters Health)—U.S. commercial health plans only covered biosimilar treatments as preferred products in 14% of coverage decisions last year, according to an analysis of publicly available data on coverage decisions.1 Researchers examined records from the Tufts Medical Center Specialty Drug Evidence and Coverage (SPEC) database, which has information on coverage decisions made by 17 of…
(Reuters)—A U.S. judge on Friday upheld two patents relating to Amgen Inc,’s blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel (etanercept), denying a challenge by Novartis AG, which is seeking to launch a biosimilar version. The decision was a relief to investors concerned about a competitive threat to Enbrel, which had U.S. sales of $4.8 billion last year….
TORONTO/MONTREAL (Reuters)—The Canadian province of British Columbia said on May 28 that its public drug plan will switch as many as 20,400 patients from three branded biologic drugs to cheap near-copies called biosimilars, saving an estimated C$96.6 million ($71.9 million) over three years. The new policy from the province’s PharmaCare program targets Johnson & Johnson’s…
Greetings from Washington, D.C., where ACR leaders just held more than 100 meetings on Capitol Hill supporting reforms to step therapy and prior authorization, increased reimbursement for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), solutions to the rheumatology workforce shortage, and rheumatology-specific research at the Pentagon. We’re already hearing great news about our successes: Hours after our visit,…
Health Canada has approved Erelzi, which is biosimilar to Enbrel (etanercept), for treating psoriatic arthritis in adults…
The FDA has approved Truxima (rituximab-abbs), which is biosimilar to Rituxan (rituximab), for treating adults with CD20-positive, B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma…
CHICAGO—ACR leaders described a series of looming legislative and regulatory threats to rheumatologists and their patients—including the proposed collapsing of evaluation and management (E/M) coding and potential changes to step therapy rules—and urged everyone in the field to make their voices heard to quash the proposals. They also recounted recent victories in the policy realm…
In late July, the European Commission granted marketing approval for Hyrimoz, which is biosimilar to adalimumab…