Civica Rx has won an investment of $55m through a deal with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association of US health insurance firms to create a new subsidiary that will acquire and develop generic filings to be launched in the US from 2022.

Pfizer has launched its Ruxience rituximab biosimilar in the US at a 24% discount to the wholesale acquisition cost of the Rituxan original. The firm has also revealed that when it launches its Trazimera trastuzumab biosimilar in mid-February, it will be at a 22% discount to the Herceptin brand’s WAC.

Following Aspen’s admission last year that it was party to an illegal, anti-competitive agreement on fludrocortisone, Tiofarma has now also conceded to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority that it took part in the deal.

Slovenia’s Krka has responded to media reports of “irregularities” at its Romanian subsidiary – including allegations of bribing local doctors to prescribe its products – by pledging to form a special investigation team to immediately examine the matter.

Celltrion has unveiled plans to construct a biologics plant in Wuhan, China, as well as setting up a direct sales network in the country, as part of its wider global strategy that also involves launching a new biosimilar every year to 2030.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has upheld a series of inter partes review decisions from 2017 in which three Humira patents were found invalid by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board within the US Patent and Trademark Office.