By Colin Kellaher

 

Shares of Coherus BioSciences Inc. jumped more than 10% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the biopharmaceutical company said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Cimerli, its biosimilar to Roche Holding AG's blockbuster eye drug Lucentis.

The Redwood City, Calif., company said Cimerli is the first Lucentis biosimilar that is interchangeable for all five FDA-approved indications, meaning it can be substituted without the prescriber having to change the prescription, much like how generic drugs are routinely substituted for brand-name drugs.

Biosimilars are near-copies of biologic drugs that are made from living cells and are analogous to generic copies of traditional pill-form medicines.

Coherus said that Cimerli, which has a year of interchangeability exclusivity, is its third FDA-approved product and the first of four new product launches planned by the end of 2023, adding that it expects its first sales of the product in October.

Roche reported U.S. Lucentis sales of nearly $600 million for the first half of this year but noted that the first biosimilars would be hitting the market in the second half.

Coherus shares, which closed Tuesday at $10.02, were recently up 13% to $11.33 in premarket trading.

 

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 03, 2022 06:48 ET (10:48 GMT)

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