March 3 Quick Takes: ‘affordable’ insulin, finally, coming to U.S.

Civica Inc. and its new CivicaScript operating unit will produce “affordable” glargine, lispro and aspart and sell the insulins at “significantly lower” prices than their marketed reference products as part of a collaboration of hospital systems, payers and foundations that includes Blue Cross Blue Shield, Kaiser Permanente, JDRF, Providence and nine other partners. Civica, a non-profit generics company created by hospital systems and philanthropies in 2018, will produce the biosimilars at a 140,000 square-foot plant in Virginia under a license from India’s GeneSys Biologics Pvt. The non-profit, which hopes the first product will be available in 2024, will set a recommended consumer price of no more than $30 per vial and no more than $55 for a five-count box of cartridges. The announcement comes less than a month after President Joe Biden called for insulin patient cost-sharing to be capped at $35 per month, a message echoed in his State of the Union address on Monday.

Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB) has begun cutting headcount as part of a previously announced plan to save about $500 million after slow uptake of Aduhelm aducanumab-avwa and generic competition for the company’s MS drugs. The company said the cost-savings will not be “entirely driven” by staffing cuts and that it is prioritizing “not fulfilling open positions,” with some existing staff able to apply for open posts that it is filling. Biogen said the measures “will help the company remain flexible so additional investments can be made in our pipeline and other strategic initiatives.”...