Coherus BioSciences will see its workforce shrink once again as the result of the recently agreed sale of its Neulasta biosimilar to Accord BioPharma.
About 50 employees who are associated with the drug, called Udenyca, are expected to transfer across to Accord, reducing Coherus’ head count by 30%, the biopharma explained in its full-year earnings results.
Udenyca, which is a biosimilar of Amgen’s Neulasta, was approved in 2018 to treat cancer patients receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy. The drug boosts white blood cell count to help patients fight off infection.
In December, Coherus announced that Accord’s parent company Intas Pharmaceuticals had agreed to hand over $483.4 million upfront for the drug, with about $75 million to potentially follow in net sales milestones payments. At the time, Coherus said it planned to use a chunk of the proceeds to repay $230 million in existing convertible notes as well as to buy out certain royalty obligations for Udenyca.
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Transferring staff over as part of the sale will leave Coherus with about 155 employees, the company said in its March 10 release. It won’t be the first time the biopharma has seen its team whittled down—Coherus enacted a 30% head count reduction last year and laid off 60 staffers in 2023.
“Upon the completion of the Udenyca divestiture and pay-off of our significant debt and royalty obligations, we are projecting a cash position of approximately $250 million,” Coherus CEO Denny Lanfear said in the release. “These efforts, combined with organizational streamlining, are expected to provide Coherus with a cash runway exceeding two years, funding the development pipeline through key data catalysts in 2025 and 2026.”
This clinical-stage pipeline includes casdozokitug, an IL-27 antagonist in a phase 2 trial for hepatocellular carcinoma, as well as a CCR8-targeting antibody called CHS-114.
Coherus has said it is also “sharply focused” this year on maximizing the revenue potential for Loqtorzi, the first China-made PD-1 inhibitor to score an approval in the U.S.