Good news in the biopharma industry and the US economy gave public drug developers the boost they needed to raise cash, including Karuna’s $750m offering. Private company financings slowed during the second week of August, but Prellis and Vector BioPharma raised venture capital.

Fresenius Kabi has been tipped to strike first in the race to launch a biosimilar to Actemra – a market where competition “is likely to be thin for some time.”

Fresenius Kabi is pressing on with its ‘Vision 2026’ strategic growth initiatives, with the company wrapping up its acquisition of Insud Pharma’s bio unit mAbxience. However, it remains “to some degree output constrained,” which looks set to continue to impact operations, amid staff shortages.

The policy allowing the FDA to work past a goal date could be used to deal with the generic delaying tactic, but an industry expert said other avenues to quickly dispatch labeling issues may be more appropriate.