Surprising and unfortunate news, of course; Bausch + Lomb seemed like a really good partner for the US, at least on paper, but they don’t have a single biosimilar on the market. I bought the dip with both hands, and Åmark was convincing in his presentation and also managed to calm some of the market uncertainty. Apparently, there are 10–15 potential partners for the US, and there’s still plenty of time before the marketing authorization arrives, so I’m quite confident that Xbrane will have a new partner before getting the marketing authorization—and in the best case, with a better deal than the previous one. The CEO also speculated this, as the drug and the marketing authorization case are much further along than in 2020 when the B+L deal was negotiated. According to Åmark, this will not delay the US schedule.
The reason for canceling the partnership turned out to be Bausch + Lomb’s new CEO and a new strategy to not focus on biosimilars in the future.