Asia’s premier biopharmaceuticals company, Bengaluru based Biocon has now announced a global partnership with Sandoz, a Novartis division and the global leader in biosimilars to jointly develop and market biosimilars, or generic versions of existing bio-drugs, in markets around the world.
Biocon and Sandoz — which has already developed a slate of 5 biologic knockoffs — will go to work on immunology and oncology programs together. They plan to share development, manufacturing and regulatory costs while splitting the profits on “a number” of new therapies.
Under the terms of the agreement, both companies will share responsibility for end-to-end development, manufacturing and global regulatory approvals for a number of products, and will have a cost and profit share arrangement globally. Worldwide commercialization responsibilities will be divided and each company’s strengths will be leveraged within specific geographies.
Biocon Chairperson & Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said: “We are pleased to announce our collaboration with Sandoz for developing a set of next generation biosimilar products. This synergistic partnership will enable us to scale up our capabilities for an ‘end to end’ play in the global biosimilars space. We remain committed to pursue our mission of developing biopharmaceuticals that have the potential to benefit a billion patients across the globe.
”Dr. Arun Chandavarkar, CEO & Joint MD, Biocon, added: “Biocon has worked at the leading edge of science and has demonstrated its capabilities in developing high quality biosimilars. Our credibility has been further endorsed by the recent USFDA approval of our Biosimilar Trastuzumab, which is also the first in the US. Our collaboration with Sandoz will bolster our existing global biosimilars portfolio comprising biosimilar antibodies & insulin analogs and will enable us to address the next wave of global biosimilars opportunities.”
Sandoz CEO Richard Francis remarked that the deal “bolsters our leadership position in biosimilars and positions us to continue to lead well into the future.” Francis continued “Biocon is a great complement to our proven biosimilar capabilities at Sandoz. Through this collaboration, we are reinforcing our long-term commitment to increase patient access to biologics.“
