Amgen Inc. and AbbVie Inc. said early Thursday that they have reached a settlement over Amgen’s biosimilar rival to AbbVie’s blockbuster medication Humira. Under the agreement, Amgen expects to launch its biosimilar Amgevita in the U.S. at the end of January 2023 and in Europe in mid-October 2018. AbbVie shares surged 2.3% in premarket trade on the news. The two companies, which said they would dismiss all pending litigation, did not disclose financial terms of the agreement. Biosimilars are a new class of drugs that essentially replicate existing treatments for complex diseases like cancer, multiple sclerosis and diabetes, but at lower costs. However, a number of factors have made their uptake sluggish, patent litigation chief among them. Humira, which is the world’s top-selling drug, has been a key target for biosimilar competition, but with more than 70 patents shielding it, AbbVie has long said the drug should be protected from competition until at least 2022. Amgen shares were inactive in premarket trade. AbbVie shares have surged 16.2% over the last three months, compared with a 2.7% rise in the S&P 500 .
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