Patent extensions upheld and revealed
On Monday, July 17th, a US appeals court ruled that a patent on Takeda Pharmaceutical’s drug Velcade® (bortezomib) was extended to 2022. Generic drug companies had sued to invalidate Takeda’s patents but failed. This means that there will be no generic competition before the 2022 date. This is obviously very good news for Takeda and eliminates hopes that cheaper generics would be available much sooner. Paradoxically, this will also benefit Amgen’s Kyprolis® (carfilzomib), the other major proteasome inhibitor, which would have faced much stiffer competition from a much lower priced generic.
This past week was very busy and important for the global myeloma community, which is increasingly coming together with a single voice for myeloma research and patient care. In Madrid, Spain, on the eve of the 2017 Congress of the European Hematology Association, the IMF provided platforms for many of these global research voices at the