As­traZeneca, Sam­sung quit race to de­vel­op Rit­ux­an copy­cat as ri­vals crowd out the mar­ket

Six years af­ter As­traZeneca teamed up with Sam­sung Bi­o­log­ics to de­vel­op a biosim­i­lar for Roche’s rit­ux­imab, they are throw­ing in the tow­el.

The part­ners have de­cid­ed to stop all R&D work on the pro­gram known as SAIT101, Ko­rea Bio­med­ical Re­view re­port­ed, cit­ing a quar­ter­ly re­port from Sam­sung. Archi­gen, a 50-50 joint ven­ture set up around the pro­gram, is set to be liq­ui­dat­ed.

As­traZeneca had wa­gered $70 mil­lion in cash back in 2014 to get it all start­ed, and topped up with an ex­tra $30 mil­lion two years lat­er. For Sam­sung, Ko­rea Bio­med cal­cu­la­tions sug­gest a to­tal in­vest­ment of $126 mil­lion.

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