The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently published the draft guidance, Biosimilarity and Interchangeability: Additional Draft Q&As on Biosimilar Development and the BPCI Act, Guidance for Industry. Comments can be submitted to FDA by January 19, 2021.
To read the full text of this Duane Morris Alert, please visit the firm website.
On March 16, 2013, Virginia became the first state to enact legislation regulating a pharmacist’s substitution of an interchangeable biologic drug for a prescribed reference biologic drug. Section 54.1-3408.04 of the Code of Virginia permits pharmacists to dispense a biosimilar in place of a prescribed biological product only if that biosimilar meets the higher safety standards for “interchangeability” under the federal Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009. Section 54.1-3408.04 raises additional hurdles for biosimilar and interchangeable biologic drug manufacturers by imposing recordkeeping and prescriber and patient notification requirements on a pharmacist dispensing an interchangeable biosimilar in the place of a prescribed biological product. In contrast, pharmacists are not subject to those burdens when substituting a therapeutically equivalent small-molecule generic drug for a prescribed branded drug. The provisions of the Act are discussed in more detail in a March 28, 2013 Duane Morris client alert (click here).
