Last week, Coherus BioSciences, Inc. announced that it had entered into a 340B prime vendor program contract agreement with Apexus, LLC.  This agreement includes Udenyca™, which, as we reported last month, is the second biosimilar of Neulasta^® (pegfilgrastim) to have received FDA approval.  According to the press release, Apexus’s president, Chris Hatwig, stated that “Apexus is pleased to be one of Coherus BioSciences’ first partners in the launch of Udenyca™, a pegfilgrastim biosimilar recently approved by the FDA,” and that Apexus “look[s] forward to working with Coherus in optimizing biosimilar use with this new agreement for Udenyca™ and to lowering drug pricing, while improving patient access.”

Coherus also announced that it had received a Q-Code from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for Udenyca™, which is says will be effective January 1, 2019, in time for Coherus’s planned launch of Udenyca™ in the United States on January 3, 2019.