Content about Pharmaceutical industry in the People's Republic of China

The generic drug tidal wave became a tsunami in 2012, with some of the world's top-selling pharmaceuticals swamped by generic competition, and health plan payers scrambling to reap billions of dollars in financial savings.

LONDON — The global market for biosimilars will be worth nearly $2.5 billion this year, according to a new study.

The study, by British market research firm Visiongain, forecast that the $2.445 billion market size marked more than 20% of growth from 2012 and would account for about 2% of the overall market for biologics. The market is expected to grow rapidly through 2023 as biosimilars hit the market in the United States and European Union.

Cardinal Health announced the renewal of its pharmaceutical distribution agreement with CVS Caremark to supply pharmaceuticals to the company’s retail pharmacies and distribution centers, as McKesson, which generally serves the PBM side of the business, also announced the renewal of its current distribution agreement with the pharmacy retailer.

NEW YORK — Purdue Pharma's patent for OxyContin expired Tuesday, opening up the opioid painkiller to generic competition, but authorities have raised concerns about what they call the potential for generic versions to be abused.

AGUNA HILLS, Calif. — Itonis Pharmaceuticals on Thursday unveiled the company's initial marketing plans for an over-the-counter homeopathic product that helps relieve nausea.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens will no longer source branded prescription medicines directly from suppliers beginning in September, the Chicago-based retailer announced Tuesday as part of a significant partnership between Walgreens, Alliance Boots and AmerisourceBergen that includes Walgreens and Alliance Boots potentially taking a 7% stake in the Pennsylvania wholesaler. Walgreens will begin sourcing generic medicines from AmerisourceBergen beginning in the calendar year 2014.  

NEW YORK — The stakes are high in a case involving generic drug maker Actavis and the Federal Trade Commission that will soon go before the Supreme Court, the head of a generic drug industry lobbying group said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday.

The case, FTC v. Actavis, will go before the high court on March 25 and may decide the future of patent settlements between branded and generic drug companies. The Generic Pharmaceutical Association filed an amicus brief with the court last week defending the settlements as beneficial to consumers.

Canadian generic drug makers expressed dismay over a new plan to reduce reimbursements for a half-dozen generic medications in most of the country's provinces. According to published reports, a group of premiers had reached a coordinated deal to reduce the prices their governments paid for six generic drugs, hoping to save the provinces nearly $100 million.

NORTHVALE, N.J. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a regulatory approval application from Elite Pharmaceuticals for an opioid painkiller, the drug maker said Wednesday.

Elite announced the FDA approval of its supplemental application for the manufacture and packaging of naltrexone hydrochloride tablets in the 50-mg strength. The company said the approval would allow it to start manufacturing and packaging the drug for its sales and marketing partner, Mikah Pharma, from which it bought rights to the drug in September 2010.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — H. D. Smith on Tuesday announced the establishment of H. D. Smith Specialty Solutions, an organization structured to provide focus and alignment around specialty and traditional brand products, solutions and services. The wholesaler also announced the realignment of select executive leadership positions to best capitalize on the growing needs resulting from recent geographic and service expansions. These expansions include the acquisition of Valley Wholesale Drug in October 2012 and a planned majority ownership investment in Triplefin announced in January 2013.

EASTON, Md. — Konsyl Pharmaceuticals on Wednesday named Roger Giannico VP sales and marketing. Giannico has more than 25 years of experience in health care product sales and marketing management, most recently at ChaseHealthAdvance Patient Financing, a division of JP Morgan Chase. 

Giannico earned his MBA at Dowling College in Oakdale, N.Y., and has been an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University.

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Watson Pharmaceuticals on Friday confirmed that Actavis, which was acquired by Watson in October, has filed an abbreviated new drug applications with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seeking approval to market bortezomib, a generic version of Millennium Pharmaceuticals' Velcade.

Bortezomib is a proteasome inhibitor for intravenous or subcutaneous administration, approved for treatment of patients with multiple myeloma and patients with mantle cell lymphoma who have received at least one prior therapy.