Novartis And Amgen Dispute Continues

Novartis and Amgen's dispute over biosimilar drug continues.

Amgen Inc. and Novartis AG have been facing a legal faceoff where both the company came forward in an appeal court in Washington. Novartis has been trying to defend its stance and get the ban lifted from its Zarxio, the biosimilar drug so that they can resume the sales of it. The company has been accused of replicating Amgen’s Neupogen in the United States market.

Both the companies are dealing with a lawsuit since October 2014 which is getting intense each day. Amgen is devoted to block the launch of Zarxio which it claims to be an imitation drug. According to sources, Novartis is likely to price its drug relatively cheaper than what Neupogen is retailing at.

The Food and Drug Administration authority in the United States gave approval to Novartis for the biosimilar drug in July FY14. Amgen is skeptical about the launch of this drug as the company believes that the launch of Zarxio will actually eat a great chunk of the sales of Neupogen. The sales of this drug are extremely important to Amgen as it contributed almost $1.2 billion to the accumulative revenue of the firm.

Amgen came into action in February FY15 and filed a lawsuit against Sandoz, the generic drug division of Novartis in order to put a ban on its launch. The petition was overruled by the Attorney so the company started to file one case after another so that they could delay the launch as much as possible. Despite Amgen tried its best to block Zarxio, FDA approved the drug again on March 6, which then become the first biosimilar drug in the history of United States.

This approval was a massive blow for Amgen but this is not it. With the launch of Zarxio many other health care providers business was at stake as many drugs these firms are selling are now relatively obsolete or are useless in front of biosimilar drugs. As analysts predict, these biosimilar drugs are likely to be 20-50 percent cheaper than the prices of branded drugs.

After several efforts, Amgens initiatives proved fruitful and a ban was put on Novartis’s Zarxio. Novartis again filed a lawsuit claiming that the accusation on them is extremely baseless as the living cells used in the manufacture of such drugs are different from others so it cannot really be an imitation. However, the courts have not passed a final verdict and the decision is still pending. However, the case is on fast track now so a result might be expected in the coming weeks.