A Joint Venture with AstraZeneca
Samsung Biologics has decided to stop the research and development (R&D) activities of Archigen Biotech, a joint venture with AstraZeneca.
Archigen Biotech, launched in 2014, has been developing “SAIT101,” a biosimilar of Rituxan (component name: Rituximab). Rituxan is a biopharmaceutical product of Roche, a multinational pharmaceutical company, as a treatment of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.
SAIT101 was initially developed by Samsung Biologics as its first biosimilar in 2012, but the company stopped its development. It drew attention again when Archigen Biotech resumed its clinical trials in 2016.
SAIT101's third-phase clinical trial was completed in 2020, according to Clinical Trials, a clinical information registration website run by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States.
The clinical trial results were valid, but Samsung Biologics and AstraZeneca judged that their Rituxan biosimilar would not have the desired competitiveness as other Rituxan biosimilars already hit the shelves. So they decided to stop its development, sources said.