Industry News Update

This week in pharma, the FDA approved the first generic biosimilar of GSK's big seller Advair. Although GSK has been working with Part D to drop Advair prices, it is a good indicator of Mylan’s credibility in terms of biosimilar development and is encouraging going forward. Merck and J&J also received positive news this week, with Merck receiving breakthrough status on an upcoming Pneumococcal Vaccine and J&J’s Erleada working toward a prostate cancer approval. Novo Nordisk is looking to expand their control of the GLP-1 market with an oral semaglutide and is expecting a 2-6% bump in sale following their oral and injectable expansion. There are some concerns about Merck's pipeline going forward, as some think that they are relying too heavily on the dominance of cancer drug Keytruda. Takeda myeloma drug Ninlaro is also a little concerning; The FDA recently requested overall survival data and a resubmission for the drug. This could take an extended period of time and be a hit to a Tekeda big seller.