Biocon puts arthritis drug on backburner

Biocon has decided to put the development of a biosimilar of etanercept on the backburner, as the Bengaluru-based company hopes to reap the benefits from partner Mylan’s new tieup with local drug maker Lupin.Biocon and Mylan have been working for a decade on a biosimilar version of the drug, originally sold by Amgen under brand name Enbrel and used for the treatment of illness such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.According to people familiar with the development, the complex structure to replicate Enbrel led to a slowdown in the development of the drug and it had not moved from the preclinical stage.The Biocon-Mylan JV had announced plans to develop and market five highly complex biosimilar drugs and insulin copies for emerging and regulated markets like the US and Europe. The combined opportunity of all these drugs were estimated to be $61 billion. Etanercept was one of those drugs. However, in a decade's time, the partnership has managed to get approval for only two anticancer drugs — trastuzumab and pegfilgrastim — and an insulin product, glargine.Last month, Mylan announced that it tied up with Mumbai-based Lupin with an upfront payment of $15 million to market biosimilar Enbrel in markets like Europe, New Zealand and Asia, raising doubts in the market about its JV with Biocon for this drug. It also led to speculations in the industry that Biocon’s Enbrel version had failed to take off. Biocon said it was “incorrect to say its Enbrel programme has failed” and the reason for the slow development was because the company chose to focus on other drugs in its pipeline.The company led by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw also said it would benefit from Mylan’s tie-up with Lupin.“Mylan and Biocon have an exclusive agreement on its partnered portfolio including etanercept. In line with this agreement, we decided to accelerate the opportunity for monetisation of this molecule through Mylan’s commercial arrangement for Lupin’s more advanced etanercept programme for select markets,” a spokesperson told in response to ET’s query.

from The Economic Times https://ift.tt/2L6i7Ra