Amneal co-CEO Chirag Patel said Wednesday morning that the industry is entering a “golden age of biosimilars” while explaining the company’s motivations for its $1.1 billion acquisition of Kasiv Biosciences.
In a merger of neighboring New Jersey-based companies with the bulk of their manufacturing in India, generic drug giant Amneal will acquire biosimilars specialist Kasiv for an upfront payment of $750 million (split in cash and stock to be paid at closing), plus up to $350 million in potential milestones.
The acquisition of the 15-year-old privately held company sent Anmir’s stock price up 5% by mid-morning Wednesday. The companies expect the transaction to close in the second half of this year.
“With the largest loss of biological exclusivity in history, the global market is expected to grow from approximately $40 billion today to $200 billion by 2035,” Patel said on a conference call. “Biosimilars are the next big wave of affordable medicine, and we are at a tipping point. Patient access is expanding and U.S. regulatory advances are reducing development time and costs.”
Kashif has introduced two facilities in India, one for manufacturing and the other for research and development. The company also has a Chicago Fill Finish plant and manufacturing and research and development facility at its headquarters in Piscataway, N.J., with a current production capacity of 25,000 liters and plans to expand to 75,000 liters by 2028. Additionally, the company has over 600 employees.
In Chicago, Kashif makes biosimilar versions of Amgen’s chemotherapy drugs Neupogen and Neulasta. By 2027, Amneal plans to sell Biosumimilar to Roche’s Avastin, Amgen’s Exgeva and Prolia, and Roche and Novartis’ Avastin.
The company expects to launch three to five new biosimilars each year. Amneal expects to sell several blockbuster biosimilars by the end of 2029, including Merck’s Keytruda and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo.
Amneal, one of the world’s top 20 companies in terms of generic drug sales, also announced its first quarter results on Wednesday, with sales reaching $723 million, up 4% from a year ago.
The company projects sales of $3.02 billion in 2025, with sales expected to increase between 1% and 4% this year. Once the acquisition is in full swing in 2027, the company expects sales to increase by 7% to 13%. Amneal also took the unusual step of projecting 2030 sales between $4.25 billion and $4.5 billion.
“For us to provide long-term guidance, we must first have considerable confidence in our ability to deliver on these commitments,” Patel said. “Secondly, I think it speaks to the hard work we put into this acquisition.”
