Biosimilars could be a casualty of Supreme Court Health Care Decision
The decision expected this Thursday by the Supreme Court of the United States on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) may impact the development and approval of biosimilars.
Part of the PPACA signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010 was the Biologics Price Competition & Innovation Act (BPCI).
This amended the Public Health Service Act (PHS) to create a pathway under section 351(k) for the licensing of biological products that are “interchangeable” or “biosimilar” to an FDA-licensed product.
In addition, to a licensing pathway, the regulatory framework introduced “exclusivity” periods that prevented approval of a 351(k) application until 12 years after the first license of the reference product. I doubt very much that Congress will want to have to negotiate exclusivity provisions again.
I am not a regulatory expert, but my understanding is that if the Court declares the PPACA unconstitutional in its entirety, the BPCI would be lost too.
At the risk of venturing an opinion, I don’t think the Court will want to cause collateral damage to uncontroversial parts of the PPACA such as the BPCI, but it is something to watch out for this Thursday.
Many commentators think it likely the Court will uphold certain parts of the PPACA and invalidate other provisions. This was the approach the Court followed in a decision earlier this week on Arizona Immigration Law (Arizona v. United States).
However, until a decision is published by the Court, nobody knows. Thursday is set to be a landmark day whatever the Court decides.
Update June 28, 2012
In a 5:4 opinion, the Supreme Court has upheld several provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The Court did not rule the PPACA unconstitutional in its entirety which was the only way the biosimilars provisions would have been lost. Therefore, from a biosimilar regulatory perspective, nothing has changed as a result of today’s decision – the exclusivity and approval pathway are maintained. This is good news for the biotechnology industry.
One Response to “Biosimilars could be a casualty of Supreme Court Health Care Decision”
I raised this very possibility some time ago on the Biotech Values discussion board, and now it looks like it might come to pass. Hopefully a resolution will be forthcoming quickly if needed, or it will be a significant setback for a number of companies
Comments are closed.