Coherus and Baxter amend biosimilar collaboration accord

US drug companies Coherus BioSciences and Baxter International (NYSE: BAX) have amended certain financial terms of their 2013 collaboration agreement (The Pharma Letter August 4, 2013) regarding the development and commercialization of CHS-0214, an etanercept biosimilar product candidate, for Europe, Canada, Brazil, and certain other markets. Etanercept is the active ingredient of Amgen’s (Nasdaq: AMGN) blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel

Under the terms of the amended agreement, certain existing milestones and funding obligations have been revised (which could have totalled $246 million), and the collaboration has been expanded to include select pre-commercialization activities.

In aggregate, the revised milestone payments may exceed the previous Baxter funding obligations by around $12 million. Additionally, Baxter has agreed to purchase Coherus common stock in a private placement transaction. All other contractual provisions remain materially unchanged.