Biosimilars: Fresenius announces partnership with contract manufacturer from China
With a development partnership, the German healthcare group wants to strengthen its business with so-called biosimilars. This is pushing Fresenius into a billion-euro market.
Frankfurt - Health conglomerate Fresenius is accelerating its expansion in the biotechnology-produced copy drugs market, known as biosimilars. Through a development partnership with Chinese contract manufacturer WuXi Biologics, the DAX company will secure access to up to 37 new biosimilar candidates over the next decade, according to a statement on Monday.
This will increase the current portfolio of 29 marketed and in-development molecules to up to 66. Fresenius aims to target original drugs, which currently represent over €370 billion in market volume. This is the largest deal of its kind in the industry, according to the company. Fresenius retains worldwide marketing rights for the future products and pays WuXi for the development work.
The company will not take on new debt for this deal, with costs to be covered from ongoing business. Fresenius CEO Michael Sen is using this to fulfill his announcement from last summer to invest financial strength in partnerships and research. Biosimilars have been a growth driver for the Bad Homburg-based company, with Fresenius completing the acquisition of Spanish biosimilar specialist mAbxience in October. Its factories could potentially take over the production of the new WuXi compounds in the future.
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