Sandoz picks up Coherus’ Lucentis for $170m
In an effort to focus on oncology, Coherus BioSciences has offloaded its Lucentis biosimilar Cimerli (ranibizumab) to Sandoz.
For its third quarter 2023, Coherus' net product sales of Climeri increased to $40 million from $26.7 million in Q2. Despite positive sales data, the firm has agreed to divest Cimerli and its supporting commercial infrastructure to Sandoz for an upfront payment of $170 million and an undisclosed amount for the biosimilar’s product inventory.
“Since entering the ophthalmology market in 2022, we have gained strong market share and created significant value in a non-core therapeutic area by leveraging our buy-and-bill commercial expertise. We believe it is prudent to now monetize these non-core assets to pay down debt, reduce interest costs, and take the opportunity to focus on our core therapeutic area, oncology,” said Denny Lanfear, CEO of Coherus.
Coherus acquired the US commercial rights in November 2019