Leaked political proposals to stop German insurance funds awarding tender contracts to just one supplier would not help to prevent drug shortages, insists the leading AOK group of funds.

Alvogen has signed marketing deals with local firms in Canada, Israel and South Korea for the teriparatide drug it has licensed from Pfenex. In the US, Pfenex has just completed a human factors study it feels should support a therapeutic equivalence rating for its Forteo rival.

Teva’s Actavis has lost the patent battle over osteoarthritis drug Pennsaid 2% due to a lack of “clear and convincing evidence” and “unpersuasive arguments” over obviousness.

A German higher regional court has upheld an injunction barring Mylan from marketing its Clift rival to Teva’s Copaxone 40mg/ml multiple sclerosis treatment.

Indian firm USV plans to spend $56.4m on a new drug formulations unit in Vadodara and $11.3m to upgrade its existing API unit near Mumbai as it eyes expanded capacity and additional sales in Europe.

Having unsuccessfully asserted a patent under the previous legal framework in Canada does not preclude an originator from trying again following legislative amendments enacted in 2017, the country’s Federal Court of Appeal has ruled in a decision on Pfizer’s Nivestym filgrastim biosimilar.