Biosimilar break-up: Daiichi Sankyo halts Coherus development in Japan

10-Jul-2017 - Last updated on 11-Jul-2017 at 08:21 GMT

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Daiichi Sankyo Japan has announced it is discontinuing the development of Coherus’ Etanercept biosimilar, CHS-0214.

According to Daiichi Sankyo, a lack of commercial manufacturing process informed the decision.

“The commercial manufacturing process for stable supply was not established,” a Daiichi Sankyo spokesperson told Biopharma-Reporter.

“We are not commenting on any additional details, as the manufacturing process or technical platform is proprietary,” we were told.

Coherus cuts

On June 21 Coherus Biosciences announced it will eliminate 51 jobs, following the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) rejection of the same drug, CHS-1701.

The FDA’s complete response letter (CRL) regarding Coherus’ Biosimilar License Application (BLA), issued on June 12, said the firm needs to reanalyse patient data. The agency also requested additional manufacturing information.

Coherus said it intended to work with the FDA in order to address the information requests.

The Daiichi Sankyo spokesperson told us the FDA rejection did not affect the firm’s decision to stop making the drug.