At the recent EULAR Congress, the joint ventures between Merck, Biogen and Samsung bore fruit with promising biosimilars data presented.
As emerging and established biopharmaceuticals companies scramble for a place in the biosimilars space, clinical trial data presented at the recent European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) Annual Congress in Rome shows promise for more market availability of the copycat drugs – and competition amongst their makers.
Merck, in partnership with Samsung Bioepis (itself a joint venture between the South Korean tech company and US pharma group, Biogen), along with EPIRUS Biopharmaceuticals presented data demonstrating the clinical comparability of their biosimilars to their respective reference products. This could help pave the way for each company gaining regulatory approvals in the markets they apply for.
The Biogen/Samsung joint venture was established in 2011 and involves collaboration on developing, marketing and manufacturing biosimilars. Merck and Samsung Bioepis partnered up in 2013, under an agreement that sees Merck getting the marketing rights for a number of biosimilars in certain nations, while Samsung looks after research and development.
