Last week, Biocon Ltd announced the approval of approximately a 150 million USD capital injection from Goldman Sachs. Dr. Christian Hamacher, CEO, Biocon Biologics, said, “This capital injection by Goldman Sachs will enable us to make prudent investments in R&D, high-quality manufacturing, as well as, establish a global commercial footprint.” As we reported late last month, Biocon reported increased year-over-year revenue of 10% to $17.6 billion and 11% growth in biosimilars to 6.07 billion and has emphasized commercialization of its Insulin Glargine product, Semglee®, in the U.S. during the past quarter.
Also, earlier this week, Samsung Bioepic announced that it has initiated a Phase 1 clinical trial for its proposed biosimilar to Prolia® (denosumab). Prolia, marketed and sold by Amgen, is a treatment for glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIOP) in men and women at high risk of fracture. The announcement stated that the Phase 1 clinical trial for SB16 (denosumab) is a comparison between SB16 and Prolia in healthy male volunteers.