Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Samsung/BIIB halt development of Rituxan biosimilar:

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2012/10/133_122490.html

“We have been conducting clinical tests for SAIT101 in our labs in different locations around the word since March last year. However, the testing has stopped due to some internal reasons,’’ said one Samsung source, asking not be identified.

The rationale for the stoppage may be the same as when Teva recently halted its own Rituxan FoB program (#msg-80236315): a non-interchangeable Rituxan FoB is a shaky business proposition insofar as it will have to be heavily marketed, cutting deeply into margins.

An interchangeable FoB for Rituxan would be a different matter, of course, but no company has disclosed such a program, and I don’t think Rituxan is one of the first three FoB compounds in the BAX-MNTA collaboration.

BIIB is in the header of this post because Samsung and BIIB are FoB partners pursuant to a deal inked in Dec 2011 (#msg-69629103).