Pfizer, Biocon enter into deal for biosimilar insulin

The world's top drug maker Pfizer today said it has entered into a deal with Biocon Ltd to sell the drug maker's biosimilar versions of diabetes treatment insulin.

Under the deal, Biocon will be paid $200 million up front and will also be eligible to receive additional development and regulatory milestone payments of up to $150 million in addition to payments related to sales of these medicines, Pfizer added.

The Bangalore-based Biocon will be responsible for developing and manufacturing the treatments. Its responsibility will also include securing regulatory approval, the companies said in a statement today. According to the statement, Biocon can get added payments of as much as $150 million for meeting development and regulatory goals, besides payments linked to product sales by New York-based Pfizer.

Pfizer will get exclusive rights to commercialise Biocon's drugs -- recombinant human insulin, Glargine, Aspart and Lispro – globally. There will be certain exceptions, such as Germany, India and Malaysia, where Biocon will share co-exclusive rights.

Shares in Denmark's Novo Nordisk, the world's biggest insulin maker, were down 1.76 per cent today.

Western drug makers such as Pfizer are looking to emerging drug markets on a priority standing as sales slow in their home markets and cheap-off patent drugs that can be sold in high volumes under a multinational brand present an attractive market opportunity.

Shares of Biocon that was set up by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw in her garage in 1978, which has a market valuation of around $1.8 billion, have zoomed 46 per cent this year, outpacing the benchmark index's 15.5 per cent rise in the period.