April 27, 2024

• 

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung BioLogics may be in talks with Biogen for a supply agreement, given that the contract drug making unit of Samsung Group has been showing interest in producing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, industry sources said on Jan. 13.

US-based Biogen, which posted positive data from an early-stage trial of its Alzheimer’s candidate Aducanumab in December, could be a potential partner for Samsung BioLogics, a contract manufacturer of biotech drugs for global pharmaceutical firms such as Bristol-Myers Squibb and Roche Holding.

BioLogic’s move for the next business partnership is being closely watched as the firm’s CEO Kim Tae-han said the company is negotiating with more than a dozen drug makers for supply contracts at the JP Morgan Conference held in San Francisco on Jan. 10.

“Negotiations are underway with 15 companies for over 30 products for contract manufacturing deals,” Kim said.

Previously, Kim hinted the company has been searching for partners that are developing medications for Alzheimer’s disease which affects some 44 million people worldwide.

“We will be the first to secure information if a company is developing Alzheimer’s drugs as our information network for global drug development status is in full operation (searching for the one),” he said at the 2016 Bio International Convention in June.

Securing supply deals is crucial for BioLogics which will soon become the world’s biggest biologics contract manufacturing operator by capacity once its third plant is completed and begins operations in the fourth quarter of 2018 after validation.

The company has already inked deals worth US$2.9 billion with six global pharmaceutical firms to supply a total of nine products.

Biogen is the second-largest shareholder of Samsung Bioepis, Biologic’s affiliate focusing on developing biosimilar that will compete with some of the world’s best-selling drugs.

Development of the neurodegenerative disease drug has been making slow progress despite massive investments and studies by global drug makers and researchers.

In November last year, Eli Lilly said its experimental drug failed to slow the loss of cognitive ability in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease in late-stage clinical trials, dealing another blow to the pharma industry’s long quest to find a better treatment for the brain-damaging condition. Over the last 27 years, Lilly has spent about $3 billion on Alzheimer’s studies.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)