Reuters: Regulatory News: UPDATE 1-Teva and Lonza scrap collaboration on biosimilar drugs

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UPDATE 1-Teva and Lonza scrap collaboration on biosimilar drugs Jul 25th 2013, 06:35 Thu Jul 25, 2013 2:35am EDT ZURICH, July 25 (Reuters) - Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Swiss Lonza Group said they were discontinuing their collaboration for the development, manufacturing and marketing of biosimilars. The mutual decision to end the venture, started in 2009, will allow both companies to concentrate on their own strategies and expertise, they said in a joint statement on Thursday. The move to end the alliance on biosimilars - copycat versions of injectable biotech medicines that have gone off patent - is not a complete surprise, since Lonza said in March it was reviewing the venture. The Swiss group's chief operating officer, Stephan Kutzer, said on Thursday it was now clear that biosimilars would "require more capital than initially planned and will also take more time until they reach the market". Biosimilars have long been eyed as a major opportunity for large makers of generic drugs, such as Teva and Novartis's Sandoz unit, but developing them is far more complicated than making generic copies of traditional pills. Regulators have also been slow to draw up rules for biosimilars, although progress in Europe is faster than in the United States. Last month, the European Medicines Agency gave a green light to copycat versions of Johnson & Johnson and Merck & Co's blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Remicade - the first time for such antibody-based medicines. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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