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Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Expects Early-Mover Bonanza In Biosimilars 

Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw expects $70-100 million revenue in two years from Semglee launch in EU, Australia.

An employee in protective clothing works inside the research and development center at the Biocon Ltd. campus in Bengaluru, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
An employee in protective clothing works inside the research and development center at the Biocon Ltd. campus in Bengaluru, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

Biocon Ltd. hopes to reap benefits of being an early mover in the global biosimilars market, according to its Chairperson and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.

It will take a few years for many of the other domestic companies who have started investing in biosimilars now to catch up, Shaw told BloombergQuint in an interview. “The next few years can be bonanza years for Biocon.”

Biocon makes biosimilars or cheaper copies of biologic drugs that are manufactured from substances in living cells. The company manufactures and supplies advanced, life-saving biopharmaceuticals for diabetes, cancer and autoimmune conditions.

The European Commission and Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Australian regulator, recently gave marketing authorisation approval to insulin glargine Semglee biosimilar co-developed by Biocon and its global partner Mylan. The company plans to launch Semglee in the European Union in the second half of 2018, and late 2018 in Australia, according to a Morgan Stanley report.

This year we expect many more approvals...and biosimilars is certainly a business strategy that has worked well for us. We do not see aggressive competition for many years yet because its only now that many companies have started investing in biosimilars...
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD, Biocon

The company could get a revenue of $70-100 million from the Semglee biosimilar over the next couple of years, according to Morgan Stanley. “$70-100 million top line in two years is very much doable. I think the opportunity is much larger,” Mazumdar-Shaw said.

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