Oncobiologics Raises Financing to Develop Biosimilars as Patents Expire

New Jersey company Oncobiologics just closed a $31 million round of financing to develop biosimilars, as patents such as Humira and Avastin approach their patent expiry.
According to MedCity News:

CEO Pankaj Mohan told MedCity News that this is the first tranche of a hoped-for D-round that’ll net another $100 million. Before this, Oncobiologics raised money largely from angels and one semi-institutional investor – about $80 million in total to this point.
[…] Humira is the first drug for which Oncobiologics is developing a biosimilar; it’s entering phase 3 trials at the moment and will be ready to hit the market right as Humira’s patent expires in 2017. Its second will be a biosimilar that mirrors Avastin; it’s got 11 assets in total under development, Mohan said.
Biosimilar pricing won’t ever be as low as a small molecule generic, Mohan said, because the effort to reverse engineer a biologic is so much more involved. Mohan projects that Oncobiologics’ biosimilars could undercut the branded drugs by 30 percent – though it’ll all depend on market dynamics. This is worthy of note, given that big biopharma players are Amgen are entering the biosimilar game.

Click here to read the full article on MedCity News.