Sandoz to acquire Cimerli business from Coherus

Newly-independent generics and biosimilars drugmaker Sandoz (SIX: SDZ) has signed an agreement to acquire the US biosimilar ranibizumab Cimerli (ranibizumab-eqrn) from Coherus BioSciences (Nasdaq: CHRS) for an upfront cash purchase payment of $170 million.

This is inclusive of a biologics license application, product inventory, ophthalmology sales and field reimbursement talent, as well as access to proprietary commercial software. Sandoz shares edged up 2.2% to 29.00 Swiss francs on the news.

Cimerli solution for injection 0.3mg (6mg/mL) and 0.5mg (10mg/mL) is a US Food and Drug administration (FDA)-approved biosimilar to reference product Lucentis, which is marketed ex-USA by Sandoz’s former parent company Novartis (NOVN: VX), as well as rival Roche (ROG: SIX) in the USA.