Indian bio-pharmaceutical major Biocon has announced an exclusive global partnership with leading biosimilar pharma company Novartis’ Sandoz to develop, manufacture and commercialise biosimilar products in the fields of immunology and oncology.
“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,” said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson and Managing Director, Biocon.
As per the agreement, both companies will share the responsibility for end-to-end development, manufacturing and global regulatory approvals for a number of products. Both the companies have a cost and profit share arrangement globally. Sandoz will lead commercialisation of the products in North America and the European Union, while Biocon will lead the commercialisation in rest of the world.
Biocon has successfully developed and taken a range of novel biologics, biosimilar antibodies, rh insulin and insulin analogues from lab to market. Recently, the company received USFDA approval for the first biosimilar of Trastuzumab — the first biosimilar to be approved in the US for any company in India.
According to Arun Chandavarkar, CEO and Joint MD, Biocon, the partnership with Sandoz will bolster the existing biosimilar portfolio of the company and ride the new wave of opportunities in this segment.
