In consideration of all the speculation about buyo
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Under the gun with Aduhelm floundering, Biogen sells its stake in biosimilars business for $2.3B
It turns out the Korea Economic Daily was onto something when, over the Christmas break, it reported that Samsung was in the process of making a buyout bid for Biogen. Samsung quickly denied the rumor, and then we heard nothing more on the matter for another month.
Samsung and Biogen broke the news late Thursday that they have indeed been working on a buyout deal — not for the biotech itself, but for its biosimilars joint venture.
The Korean conglomerate, which has been aggressively scaling its contract biologics manufacturing business, is shelling out up to $2.3 billion to take over Biogen’s substantive stake in Samsung Bioepis.
For Biogen, the exit from biosimilars elevates the stakes of an already fraught focus in neurosciences, anchored by the controversial Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm. At the same time, the deal gives the biotech some cash to burn as it grapples with disappointing Aduhelm sales and a negative Medicare coverage decision that poses serious implications for reimbursement.
As the deal was laid out, Biogen will receive $1 billion in cash immediately and another $1.25 billion over the next two years — split into two payments, $812.5 million at the first anniversary of closing and $437.5 million at the second anniversary. There’s another $50 million in commercial milestones.
Just a few weeks ago at the JP Morgan conference, CEO Michel Vounatsos boasted about “a very successful new business with our biosimilars” and spelled out plans to build out new franchises.
He did not elaborate on the decision to now sell Biogen’s stake.
“We are thankful to Samsung Biologics for a productive collaboration since 2012,” he said. “We believe biosimilars are essential to help sustain healthcare systems and represent an important value creation opportunity for Biogen.”
When Samsung Bioepis was first established, George Scangos, then CEO of Biogen, carefully invested in a 15% stake. Six years later, with Vounatsos at the helm, the big biotech decided to go deep, putting down $700 million to boost its stake to one share shy of 50% ownership.
In a statement, Biogen noted that it will retain commercial rights to both Byooviz (Lucentis biosimilar) and the investigational candidate SB15 (Eylea biosimilar), as well as existing agreements around marketed products. That includes copycat versions of Enbrel, Humira and Remicade.
https://endpts.com/under-the-gun-with-aduhelm...-for-2-3b/