Following a pair of similar deals in January and June, Coherus BioSciences has netted itself a hefty chunk of change for the last biosimilar in its portfolio, in turn freeing up the company to go all-in on its brand-name cancer med Loqtorzi.
Coherus has agreed to sell its biosimilar Udenyca—which references Amgen’s febrile neutropenia drug Neulasta—to Intas Pharmaceuticals for up to $558.4 million. The deal, which is expected to close by the end of 2025’s first quarter, will see Coherus receive $483.4 million upfront, plus $75 million in potential sales milestones, the company said Tuesday.
Intas, for its part, will get its hands on the prefilled syringe, autoinjector and on-body injector formats of Coherus’ copycat cancer med. Intas’ specialty division Accord BioPharma is slated take up “full responsibility” for the biosimilar franchise in the U.S. once the deal wraps up, according to Coherus’ release.
Coherus says it plans to use a portion of the proceeds to wipe away $230 million in debt. Another $49.1 million from the divestment is being earmarked to buy out certain royalty obligations tied to Udenyca, the company added.
As part of the deal, Coherus also plans to transfer “certain full-time employees” to Intas to continue working on the Udenyca franchise.
With the sale, Coherus has sold off the final biosimilar in its portfolio, leaving the company with one commercial asset—the PD-1 inhibitor Loqtorzi, which the company in-licensed from Junshi Biosciences in early 2021.
Back in January, Coherus sold its Lucentis biosimilar Cimerli to Sandoz for $170 million. Then, in June, the company pawned off its biologic copycat to Humira, known as Yusimry, to Hong Kong King-Friend Industrial for $40 million upfront.
Now, unburdened by its roster of biosimilars, Coherus says it’s shifting its focus exclusively to novel immuno-oncology programs leveraging Loqtorzi.
“The proposed divestiture of Udenyca represents the successful execution of our strategy to focus R&D and commercial resources on Coherus’ innovative immuno-oncology portfolio and to strengthen our financial position,” the company’s CEO, Denny Lanfear, said in a statement. “We have created significant value with our Udenyca franchise, and this proposed transaction allows us to monetize that value in order to maximize the opportunity ahead for Loqtorzi.”
Coherus aims to continue to build momentum for Loqtorzi in its approved indication in recurrent, locally advanced or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) as well as to pursue new indications via combinations with the company’s experimental IL-27 antagonist casdozokitug and its cytolytic CCR8 antibody CHS-114.
Coherus has been streamlining its business to better focus on oncology throughout 2024. Aside from its previous biosimilar sales, the company in March revealed it was laying off some 30% of its staff, which was partially informed by the divestiture of its Lucentis biosim Cimerli.
At the time, Coherus said it aimed to complete the staff cuts by the end of the year in a bid to save more than $25 million in annual costs.
Now, accounting for the Udenyca sale, Coherus says it will provide an updated fourth-quarter sales projection and first-quarter 2025 cash estimate in early January.
For all of 2023, Udenyca brought home $127.1 million in sales, which chipped in toward total full-year revenue of $257.2 million.