Biogen has exercised its option to purchase additional shares of Samsung Bioepis, its biosimilars joint venture with Samsung BioLogics, an Incheon, South Korea-based contract biologics manufacturer, in a deal worth approximately $700 million. With the move, Biogen will increase its stake in the joint venture from approximately 5.4% to approximately 49.9%.

Samsung Bioepis is advancing a pipeline of biosimilar candidates that includes six candidates that cover the therapeutic areas of immunology, oncology, and diabetes. The company is developing a biosimilar to Amgen’s Enbrel (etanercept); a biosimilar to Sanofi’s Lantus (insulin glargine); and a biosimilar to Roche’s Herceptin (trastuzumab). In April 2017, Samsung Bioepis received approval by the US Food and Drug Administration for Renflexis (infliximab-abda), a biosimilar referencing Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J), Remicade (infliximab) across all indications. Remicade is the top-selling drug in J&J’s pharmaceuticals division with 2017 sales of $6.31 billion.

The completion of the share purchase is subject to certain regulatory closing conditions and is expected to close in the second half of 2018. The exact share purchase price will depend on the timing of the closing and foreign currency exchange rates at that time.

Source: Biogen