Recent news in the world of drug development reveals that there’s a somewhat unexpected category of corporate business looking to enter the multibillion-dollar biotech market. Just two weeks ago, Reuters examined an interesting group of multinational companies including Hanwha Chemicals, Samsung, and Fujifilm, which are entering into new deals on biosimilars in order to grab the market currently held by the dozens of biologics that will lose patent protection over the next ten years.
Certainly, tech manufacturers and camera companies aren’t known for their expertise in drug development, yet they have the cash to make great deep-pocket partners for large pharma companies like Merck who are looking to ride their share of the biosimilar gravy train. For all of these businesses, Reuters notes, biosimilars offer a huge new revenue source, potentially registering in the billions. And because making these “follow-on” versions of biologic drugs will be a far more complex process than developing traditional small molecule generics, as described in my previous blog post on this topic, it will a venture dominated by large companies that most likely won’t be operating solo. (more…)
