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Transforming Coherus Adds To IO Pipeline Via Merger With Surface Oncology

 
• By Joseph Haas

Currently battling AbbVie over pricing plans for its Humira biosimilar, Coherus is also looking to become an immuno-oncology player, acquiring two more clinical assets in an all-stock deal.

Merger
Coherus/Surface merger would result in pipeline with four clinical IO candidates • Source: Shutterstock

Best known as a biosimilars company, Coherus BioSciences, Inc. is trying to bolster its prospects in innovative immuno-oncology therapy by merging with the troubled Surface Oncology, Inc. through an all-stock transaction announced on 16 June. Valued at $65m and effectively doubling the size of Coherus’s IO pipeline, the deal has received unanimous approval from each company’s board of directors, which expect it to close during Q3.

The planned merger is Coherus’s second appearance in the headlines this week, as the Redwood City, CA-based firm may be on its way to court with AbbVie Inc. in a dispute over Coherus’s pending biosimilar of Humira (adalimumab), Yusimry. (Also see "Coherus And AbbVie Trade Legal Blows Amid Radical Adalimumab Price Offering" - Generics Bulletin, 15 June, 2023.) Coherus, which plans to launch Yusimry (adalimumab-aqvh) under a partnership with Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs, drew AbbVie’s ire with a plan to market its biosimilar at a monthly cost of $569

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