Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Biogen teams with Samsung on $300M biosimilar venture

By Michelle Lang

Biogen Idec Inc. of Weston and Samsung of Seoul, Korea, are collaborating on a $300 million joint venture to develop and market biosimilars, also known as follow-on biologics.

Samsung’s new business unit, Samsung Biologics, formed in April, will stake an 85 percent claim in the venture, adding $255 million to the collaboration. Biogen (Nasdaq: BIIIB) will support the remaining 15 percent stake in the venture with a $45 million investment.

The new venture, to be based in Korea, is expected to draw on Biogen’s protein engineering and biologics manufacturing expertise, though not compete with the company by producing biosimilars of any of Biogen’s proprietary drugs.

Biosimilars are a category of drugs similar to, but not that same as, proprietary innovative new drugs. They also differ from generic drugs, which are shown to be the same as the innovative drugs and generally designated as therapeutically interchangeable.

Widely known as a consumer electronics giant, Samsung announced in May 2010 that it would open five new business units, including the biopharmaceutical business, which it plans to contribute $2 billion to through 2020.

In August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration addressed the biosimilar drug market, saying that because of their complexity, a “one size fits all” approach will not work; instead, the agency said it would measure biosimilarity through all information available as a standard for biosimilar review and approval in the U.S.