We previously blogged about Pfizer’s ($PFE) antitrust lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) related to Janssen’s Remicade®.  In short, Pfizer launched Inflectra® in 2016, which is a biosimilar to Janssen’s Remicade®.  Yet, Inflectra® has struggled to eat into Janssen’s monopoly for Remicade®.  Pfizer claims that Inflectra®’s poor sales are due to anticompetitive rebate schemes by Janssen.  Specifically, Janssen forced hospitals and insurers to enter exclusive arrangements and bundled-rebated programs that discouraged them from stocking or covering Inflectra®.  Pfizer sued Janssen in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.  Janssen moved to dismiss, but on August 10, the Court denied Janssen’s motion to dismiss.  What are the takeaways?

FDA’s Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said today that a “rigged” system between drug firms and insurers is stifling entry for less-expensive biosimilars.  Gottlieb stated that certain payment arrangements “raise another, perhaps even more insidious barrier to biosimilars taking root in the U.S., and gaining appropriate market share.”  Is J&J’s exclusionary contract scheme to discourage competition with Pfizer’s biosimilar for Remicade® a poster child for what Gottlieb is lamenting?  Pfizer recently sued Janssen over that very question, and the federal court is scheduled to decide a motion answering that question very shortly.